Why the French Hate Wikis

Posted on Published by Eugene Eric Kim

At WikiSym last August, Ward Cunningham showed some regional trends comparing Google searches for “wiki” and “blog.” Overall, searches for “blog” (in red) steadily outpace searches for “wiki” (in blue), although the rate of growth is about the same for both.    (LH4)

   (LH5)

Ward pointed out that the phenomenon is reversed in Germany:    (LH6)

   (LH7)

The same is true in Japan, except the difference is even more pronounced:    (LH8)

   (LH9)

At WikiWednesday this past week, Peter Thoeny said that he had shown similar trends for a recent Wiki talk, and that he also showed the trends in France:    (LHA)

   (LHB)

Whoa, Nellie! Apparently, the French don’t care much for Wikis. It was a shock for me to see this, as I know several stellar French members of the Wiki community and even more French-speaking members. Any thoughts as to why this might be the case?    (LHC)

TWiki 4.0 Released

Posted on Published by Eugene Eric Kim

Congratulations to Peter Thoeny and the entire TWiki community for the 4.0 (Dakar) release of TWiki. They’re doing a release party tomorrow (Wednesday) night at WikiWednesday in Palo Alto. I’m gonna do my darnedest to make it, but if not, I hope to see many of you Wiki folks this weekend in Portland for RecentChangesCamp. I plan on visiting Seattle afterwards, so if you’re in Portland or Seattle and want to meet up, let me know.    (K4L)

WikiSym 2005, October 16-18

Posted on Published by Eugene Eric Kim

Come to WikiSym 2005 on October 16-18 in San Diego, California. Held in conjunction with OOPSLA, it’s shaping up to be an excellent conference. Along with usual suspects (Ward Cunningham, Jimmy Wales), Robert Haas, the former U.S. poet laureate, is keynoting. I’ll be moderating a panel on “Wikis in the Consumer Enterprise,” with Joe Kraus, Peter Thoeny, and Thomas Weigert. If you plan on attending, let me know.    (JQ3)