- ThurWiki
- What is a wiki?
What is a wiki?
A wiki is a collection of pages that everyone with permission can read and change themselves, directly in the browser. The best-known one is Wikipedia. In its wiki, a company gathers what is otherwise scattered across heads, e-mails and folders: instructions, procedures, knowledge about customers, checklists.
You already know one.
Wikipedia is a wiki. Every article is a page, articles link to one another, a search finds them, and in each article's history stands who changed what and when. It is written not by an editorial team but by the people who know the subject.
A company wiki works in just the same way, with two differences: it is closed, and only your own people get in. And it is not an encyclopaedia but your company's handbook: how a quotation is written at your firm, how the heating in the warehouse is reset, who is on standby, what has to happen with a new customer.
Where the word comes from
“Wiki wiki” is Hawaiian and means “quick”. The programmer Ward Cunningham gave his software that name in 1995 because it let you create and change a page without detours. The name has stuck, and so has the principle: whoever knows something writes it down, and everybody else finds it.
You may not be looking for a “wiki” at all.
Very few people look for a wiki. They look for the problem: for a home for instructions, for a knowledge base, for somewhere to keep the documentation. Nearly always, the same thing is meant.
| What is being searched for | What is meant, and how a wiki solves it |
|---|---|
| Knowledge base | A place for what the company knows, searchable and kept up to date by the people who know it. That is exactly a wiki. |
| Documentation management, managing documentation | Keeping instructions, procedures and handbooks current instead of losing them among file versions. In a wiki there is one valid version and the history behind it. |
| Somewhere to keep instructions and papers | Not folder structures but pages with a search and links. Files sit where they are explained; the search reads their content as well. |
| Internal handbook, company handbook, operations manual | The handbook that never gets finished because everything keeps changing. As a wiki, everybody changes it, without waiting for a layout to be approved. |
| Process documentation, work instructions | How something is done at your company, written down in one place. With four-eyes approvals where it has to be checked. |
| Onboarding, inducting new staff | A page with checklists you can send new people to, instead of explaining everything one by one. |
| An intranet for a small company | News, telephone list, forms, instructions. In a small company a wiki covers the whole intranet. |
| Document control under ISO 9001 | Who approved it, when, and what stood there before? In a wiki both sit in the history, without an add-on. |
| An FAQ for staff, “where do I find what?” | The questions that keep coming back, answered once and findable by everyone. |
In short: anyone looking for one of these things is looking for a wiki, even if the word never came up.
Does this sound familiar?
In almost every company the knowledge sits in places where you cannot find it when you need it.
Which version counts?
The instruction sits on the drive three times over: “Instruction”, “Instruction new” and “Instruction new final 2”. Nobody knows exactly which one is right.
Only Mrs Meier knows that.
And Mrs Meier is on holiday. Or has left the company, and with her went everything that was never written down.
The new colleague asks for the tenth time.
Not because she is not paying attention, but because it is written nowhere. Every answer costs two people their time.
It was in an e-mail.
From 2019, to three people, two of whom have left. Anyone who did not get the e-mail does not know.
Notes stuck to the monitor.
The standby number, what to do in a power cut, the contact at the supplier: on slips of paper that eventually fall off.
Everybody does it differently.
Because the procedure was never written down, everyone has their own. The customer notices, at the latest.
A wiki solves this by a simple means: there is one place where what the company knows is written down, and everybody knows where it is.
How a company wiki works.
Six terms are enough, and then you know the whole principle.
Page
One subject, one page: “Holiday policy”, “Installation at customer Muster AG”, “Power cut in the warehouse”. On it stands text, happily with tables, images and checklists, as in a Word document.
Space and page tree
Pages sit in spaces, such as “Personnel”, “Customers”, “Technical”. Within a space they arrange themselves like chapters and sub-chapters. On the left, that page tree is always in view.
Link
Pages link to one another, as on Wikipedia. The handover instruction links to the checklist, the checklist to the customer page. You click your way to the target.
Search
A search field at the top finds every word on every page, including inside attached PDF and Word files. You do not have to know where something sits, only what you are looking for.
Version
Every save produces a new version. You see who changed what and when, and bring an earlier version back with one click. That is why nothing can be broken.
Rights
Who may read and change what is set by the administrator, per space. The payroll list is seen by accounts, the installation instruction by everyone.
Shared drive, e-mail or wiki?
The shared drive and e-mail have their place: files belong in a store, quick questions in a message. For what a company has to know lastingly, neither is much good.
| Wiki | Folder on a shared drive | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Where does it sit? | on a page everyone with permission can see | in files you have to open | in individual people's mailboxes |
| Which version counts? | always the current one, earlier ones in the history | often several copies side by side | some reply somewhere in the thread |
| Who changed what? | every change with a name and a time | only the file's modification date | not traceable |
| Finding things | a search across all pages and attachments | file names yes, content often not | only in your own mailbox |
| New members of staff | read themselves in | have to ask where things sit | do not see old e-mails |
| On the move, on a phone | in the browser | depending on the setup | yes |
What belongs in a company wiki.
Everything more than one person has to know and that does not change every week.
Trades and installation
Installation instructions, the systems at each customer, acceptance checklists, the standby rota, what to do in a fault, suppliers and contacts.
Office, fiduciary, administration
Procedures such as the monthly closing, deadlines, templates for letters and quotations, contacts at the authorities, how each program is set up.
Practice and healthcare
The hygiene plan, instructions for the equipment, emergency procedures, orders, who covers for whom. No patient data; that belongs in the practice software.
Clubs and associations
Minutes, statutes, how the annual event is organised, who holds which office and what a successor needs to know. So that the new treasurer does not start from zero.
IT
Network, servers, printers, what to do in which fault, which licence runs out when. The classic field of use, and rarely written down well.
In every company
The induction of new staff, holiday policy and expenses, the telephone list, “where do I find what”, the answers to the questions that keep coming back.
The well-known wiki programs.
Wikis have been around for thirty years, and most companies have met one without noticing. For each of these systems we have a page comparing it with ThurWiki.
MediaWiki and Wikipedia
Wikipedia runs on MediaWiki. Rare in companies, because it means learning a notation of its own (wikitext) and running it yourself. MediaWiki compared →
Confluence
The most widespread company wiki, from Atlassian, usually alongside Jira. Data Center ends on 28 March 2029. Confluence compared →
Notion
Popular for notes and small teams, with databases and templates. The data sits with the provider in the USA. Notion compared →
DokuWiki and XWiki
Two open-source wikis to run yourself: DokuWiki lean and without a database, XWiki large and extensible. DokuWiki · XWiki
BookStack
Arranges content into shelves, books and chapters. Popular because it is simple; sub-pages at any depth are missing. BookStack compared →
SharePoint and OneNote
For many, already part of the Microsoft subscription. The classic SharePoint wiki is no longer being developed, and notes end up in OneNote. SharePoint compared →
Not sure yet which one fits? The overview of wiki software puts eleven systems side by side against thirteen criteria. Anyone who already has one and wants to move will find the steps under wiki migration.
What it brings your company.
Fewer repeat questions
The answer stands there once instead of being said ten times. Whoever asks gets a link rather than an explanation.
Faster induction
New members of staff read themselves in and ask specific questions, instead of holding up the same colleague every day.
Knowledge stays in the company
Even when somebody is on holiday, falls ill or leaves. What is written down does not go with them.
Consistent procedures
Everyone does it the same way because it is written down the same way. The customer notices it in fewer mistakes.
Traceable
Who changed what, when, and who approved it? That helps in daily work and in audits under ISO 9001.
Reachable anywhere
In the browser, in the office as on the building site, on a computer as on a phone. With no program to install.
How to begin.
A wiki does not have to be finished in a day. It grows with every question somebody asks.
With a question that comes up often
Write down the answer people ask about most. That is the first page, and it saves time from tomorrow onwards.
Few spaces
Three to five are enough at the start, say “General”, “Customers”, “Technical”, “Personnel”. You can always tidy up later.
One person who stays on it
Not to write everything alone, but to chase, to remind and to tidy up.
The new habit
“Is that in the wiki?” instead of “Go and ask Hans”. And when it is not in there: whoever gives the answer writes it in straight away.
What a wiki is not.
Not an accounts system
Invoices and figures stay in bexio or Abacus. A wiki explains how to work with them; ThurWiki can show invoices from there on a page.
Not a chat
For the quick question in between there are the telephone and messages. What comes out of them and holds longer belongs in the wiki.
Not a store for every file
Large volumes of data stay in the file store. What belongs in the wiki is what people should read and understand; files can be attached to a page.
Frequent questions about wikis
What is a wiki, in one sentence?
A collection of pages in the browser that everyone with permission can read and change themselves, with a search, with links between the pages and with a history of every change.
Where does the word wiki come from?
From Hawaiian: “wiki wiki” means “quick”. The programmer Ward Cunningham gave his software that name in 1995 because it let you create and change a page quickly. The best-known wiki is Wikipedia.
Do you have to be able to program?
No. In ThurWiki you write as you would in Word: a ribbon, tables, images dragged in. Anyone who can write an e-mail can write a wiki page.
So can anybody change anything, or break it?
No. Who may read and change what is set by the administrator, per space. And every change is saved as a version: an earlier one is back with a single click.
Is a wiki worth it for a small company?
Precisely there. In a small team a great deal of knowledge hangs on individual people; if one of them is away, it is gone at once. A wiki starts small: with the one instruction people ask about most often.
What is the difference from a folder on a shared drive?
On the drive sit files you have to open to see what is inside, often in several versions. In a wiki the content stands directly on the page, there is one valid version, the search finds every word, and you can see who changed what and when.
Where does ThurWiki's data sit?
In Switzerland, on ThurData's own infrastructure. Every company gets a wiki of its own; only the people you invite get in.
Is a wiki the same as a knowledge base?
In everyday use, yes. Knowledge base, internal handbook and company handbook all mean the same thing: a place where what the company knows is written down and where everyone with permission can find it and keep it up to date. A wiki is the simplest way to run one.
We are looking for a home for our documentation. Is a wiki enough?
Usually yes. In a wiki the content stands on the page rather than in a file you have to open first: one valid version, one search across everything, every change with a name and a time. Files that have to stay files you attach to the right page; the search reads their content too.
Wiki or document management (DMS)?
A DMS manages files with retention periods, revisions and approvals, usually for contracts, invoices and receipts. A wiki manages content: instructions, procedures, things to look up. Many companies need both. For document control, ThurWiki brings four-eyes approvals and a complete history with it.
What is the difference between a wiki and an intranet?
Intranet is the umbrella term for a company's internal web: news, forms, the telephone list. The wiki is the part of it where the knowledge sits and where everybody writes. In small companies the wiki often is the whole intranet.
Which wiki programs are there?
The well-known ones are MediaWiki, which runs Wikipedia, Confluence from Atlassian, Notion, DokuWiki, XWiki, BookStack, Wiki.js, Docmost, Outline and the wiki in SharePoint. ThurWiki is ThurData's company wiki, run in Switzerland. For most of these systems we have a comparison page of our own.
A wiki is a knowledge base for companies: a collection of pages in the browser that everyone with permission can read and change themselves, with full-text search, links between the pages and a history of every change. Anyone looking for an internal handbook, a company handbook, a home for instructions, a knowledge base or a tool for documentation management is, as a rule, looking for exactly that.
Well-known wiki programs are MediaWiki, which runs Wikipedia, Confluence from Atlassian, Notion, DokuWiki, XWiki, BookStack, Wiki.js, Docmost, Outline as well as the wiki in SharePoint and OneNote. ThurWiki is the company wiki of ThurData GmbH: an editor like a word processor without wiki syntax, spaces with a page tree, versions and four-eyes approvals for document control under ISO 9001 and ISO 27001, a search that reaches into attachments, and content from bexio, WHMCS, Abacus, Jira, Git and other systems directly on the page.
Typical uses in small and medium-sized companies: process documentation and work instructions, induction of new staff, documentation of installations and customers in the trades, hygiene and equipment instructions in a practice, minutes and handovers of office in a club, IT documentation of the network, the servers and fault handling. ThurWiki is run on our own infrastructure in Switzerland, in ThurData GmbH's data centre in Thurgau.
The best way is to see it yourself.
We set up a wiki for you with sample pages, and you click your way through it for a week. Or you call, and we explain it to you on the telephone.