I was notified by KMM, the company that sponsors this blog, with the following: We have an order from Bizwiki.co.uk, who wants to be reviewed by you on BizMediaScience.com. Here is the info they provide about themselves:
BizWiki - the Business Wiki…BizWiki is a free directory of businesses that anyone can contribute to and edit. As the UK-focused part of this international network, Bizwiki.co.uk aims to become the largest, most comprehensive directory of British businesses on the Web. Bizwiki is based on the powerful Drupal open source content management platform, augmented by a host of custom modules that have been developed in-house. The servers run the popular LAMP stack of Linux, Apache, MySql and PHP. We chose Drupal because it allows us to rapidly develop and offer a wide range of features and services, layered on top of a robust user and content management system. Bizwiki is currently in beta with live launch scheduled before the end of the year. The UK version was launched first as a test case with US, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand versions to follow.
I am accepting no money for this review. I told KMM that I would do the review, would not accept payment, and in exchange I would write what I felt to be accurate. No Armstrong Williamsing for me (and did you know there's some neuroeconomic research dealing with incentivizing people via reward structures? I choose not to be incentivized in that way).
I really don't know why anyone would ask me to review a product. I'm a notoriously difficult sell. I was given a first look invite to Joost, used it once and haven't touched it since. It might be neat but what does it really benefit me?First, I'm a Luddite. Second, I rarely endorse or recommend things unless I know for a fact they will make the life or business better for the company or individual I'm endorsing or recommending something to. I'm not a gadget-person. True, I have a Kurzweil Mark 12 and not an acoustic piano, and that decision had more to do with price (we got a new one at a great price), and not having room for the piano, harpsichord and fully unified pipe organ I wanted. But beyond that...no. I reluctantly use a PDA and will give it up in a month or two when my duties no longer require one. Another problem was that I've seen some truly incredible products in the past month's travels (and will be talking about them when I'm
allowed to). A joy of being semi-retired is that I get invited to see some incredible things while they're still in development.
So I think BizWiki's interface is very good. Simple and straightforward is always a plus in my book.
Was it useful? I looked for places I knew in Scotland. No real luck. It seemed more a search engine merged into a wiki. Interesting and I was left thinking, yeah, so?
It did get me thinking more about what a wiki really is. Do remember that NextStage developed a prototype wiki back in 2003 as part of a research project. It got heavily used and we learned quite a bit about community and social dialoguing through it. I did compare NextStage's prior research to this product.
The company states that a business goal is to become the biggest business portal in its market. It may succeed. Was it a Wikipedia for business? Many businesses that I looked for were either not found or not filled in. Therefore, to me, not useful.
So I asked people I know in the UK what they thought. The people I asked could also be qualified as NextStagers. Their thoughts were that this was interesting and not something they'd use because they didn't know the people posting the entries. For a social system to be useful, a network with a common goal must first be established. Their belief is that BizWiki could be a worthwhile tool but only once an extensive and trusted network is in place.
Thank you Joseph for the candid review. As you correctly point out, the search functionality is less than perfect. Bizwiki UK is still in beta and search is being re-worked for live launch. A more advanced search functionality will certainly enhance the site and encourage more user participation.
Posted by: Teresha Aird | November 1, 2007 5:53 PM | Permalink to Comment