What is a Wiki?
A Wiki is a piece of server software that allows users to freely create and edit Web page content using any Web browser. Wiki supports hyperlinks and has a simple text syntax for creating new pages and crosslinks between internal pages on the fly. In case you've ever wondered Wiki stands for "What I Know Is". In theory a wiki allows communities of practice or companies to collaborate and organize their knowledge base using the ease of web access.
The pace of dynamic change and flow of news in the structured settlement industry, its subsets, its related industries and the greater financial services industry to which it belongs, dictates that one cannot simply sit there with one's thumb acting as a "non oral thermometer" and hope to remain relevant.
One problem associated with wikis is that they can become cumbersome jig saw puzzles that are difficult to keep updated. Few use or have pushed wikis in the structured settlement industry. Patrick Hindert of S2KM has created and, by most indication, has pretty much abandoned several wikis as shown below.
Structured Settlement Public Policy Wiki established 08/01/2007. Last update 08/23/2007. Features factoring ads. Wiki was "being developed by S2KM and Truffle Media Networks. All entries made by Patrick Hindert. S2KM is invited leading structured settlement and public policy knowledge leaders to contribute their ideas, commentary and analysis. Progress reports were to be published periodically on S2KM's blog. S2KM Limited was "to continue to update this wiki with new content" Never did. Links to tired poor sound quality Truffle media podcasts.
AIG Structured Settlement Wiki. Established 10/10/2008. Last update 10/25/2008. When established Hindert stated that "the wiki consists of three pages, in addition to the home page, which S2KM will update periodically, and never did. In this author's opinion an attempt by Hindert to salvage his reputation for missing the boat on AIG. Hindert's first blog post came a week after the meltdown. Trying to be the "papparazzo" he tried to position himself above the fray and ask questions of others when as a "knowledge worker" he had (at the time) been blogging the industry for 4 years with no mention of AIG until September 21, 2008. Hmmm.
Structured Settlement Wiki. Established 3/24/2008. Last Update 10/20/2008 In this wiki has 5 links in attempt to support the preposterous Implication that an informal quiz of 115 JG Wentworth customers is a statistical sample. Hindert promised to continue to develop, edit and improve its content. Nothing in almost 9 months.
S2km2resource1 Wiki created by Hindert and Denham Grey. Established 10/12/2006. Last update 10/16/2006. The Cheech and Chong of Wikis, it even has an ad for Marijuana. Download S2kms2resource1 - home I thought we wanted Web 2.0 not "Web 2.Blow".
Structured Settlement Resources Wiki. Established 10/23/2007. Last update 10/29/2007. Developed for the cash now pushers' trade association. Another pot ad and one for "animal crossing cheats".
KM in S2. Created 11/25/2005 by Hindert mentor Denham Grey. Last update 01/14/2006. Still has link to notorious S2 KM "expert" splogger "Cardinal Martini" Amit Laufer who the knwoledge management experts failed to realize is just an Israeli SEO Expert NOT a structurred settlement expert, "structured settlement blog-??" and "structured settlement info-??" Dead links galore!
Wikis are typically unattractive when compared to modern blogs (posts, audio or video) which include rich content and now benefit a host of internal and external indexing features. For example one can place a Google search within your blog so that users can search your blog rather than scrolling through an index, foraging through a link forest maze or or digging deep into links associated with concept maps. Who has the time?
Today it's all about speed. Have the information when you need it. What a concept! Sound familiar?
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