Public sector Wikis

This page is a bit easier to write than Private sector wikis because I've already found a fair bit of stuff on the subject.

There were a few articles a while back that hailed the rise of wiki technology in the public sector.

I've already talked about Wiki or won't he? but I don't think I cited many of the examples he/she(?) mentions:

• DoWire's E-Democracy Best Practices Wiki - describes itself as 'A collaborative drafting environment' . Guy says of it: 'a primary source for important developments concerning the convergence of democracy and the Internet around the world'
• Bristol wireless - Guy says 'is a co-operative set up to develop a free-to-access broadband intranet using radio to communities around Birstol, UK, that find themselves on the wrong side of the digital divide.'
  
• Flu Wiki - 'a national online resource created to help local communities prepare for and perhaps cope with a possible influenza pandemic.' (Guy)
  

Then of course there's the famous, or rather infamous DEFRA Wiki which everyone uses as an example of why you should have some protection from SPAM. (Surely a caveat to this should be 'if you're a massive government department with a lot of people that don't like you!'? Or maybe I'm being naive) The DEFRA Wiki was brought down within a day because of the SPAM and malicious editing that it suffered. It is now available 'for reference purposes - but further editing is not encouraged'.

Another article, Public sector catches wikimania, mentions the e-innovations wiki. It takes only a few seconds to realise that this site is overrun with Viagra SPAM! It was supposed to be 'a "tester"... it may soon be modified and retargeted. The aim was to involve senior staff leading local e-government innovations, but only 20 out of some 200 invited to participate have done so.'

So that's a quick survey of public sector wikis. I'm sure more will appear as I read more.