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Wikis are emerging as a new platform for creating content. Beyond Wikipedia, the collaboratively-authored encyclopedia, and internal company collaborations, wiki technology is being deployed to generate serious new content. One interesting example is Gerson Lehrman Group’s use of wikis to foster the writing of collaborative white papers among its network of independent experts, including consultants, physicians, scientists, engineers, attorneys, market researchers, and other professionals from around the world. Gerson Lehrman’s core business is furnishing independent experts with whom hedge funds and other professional investors can consult on a just-in-time basis. Gerson Lehrman sells access to its network of thousands of independent experts on an annual subscription basis. As a new line of business, the company is now generating on-demand, custom reports by harnessing the knowledge of its experts. Using wiki technology, Gerson Lehrman has been organizing groups of its experts to collaborate on reports. Since last fall, these experts have jointly developed more than 150 such reports on a wide range of specialized topics, including the manufacture of vaccines, liability of petting zoos, and the impact of the Mexican elections on business. The value for clients is that collaborative, expert opinion-based authoring can result in highly relevant reports, delivered in a very short period of time. While these reports currently are produced for clients only on a custom basis, the same technique could be used to create syndicated content.
These collaborative reports typically are 10-20 pages in length and are written by groups of 5-10 authors over a period of a week or two. There is no outside editor, as by definition, wikis are collaboratively written and edited. Gerson Lehrman also employs a collaborative model in paying its authors. They receive a nominal fixed fee for their efforts, but can then receive significantly more money from a bonus pool that is allocated based on ratings that the co-authors conduct of each other for each project.
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