WikiScuba - Too Liitle Too Late?

Posted Dec 24th 2006 8:33AM by Eric Brodeur
Filed under: Blogs, Beginners, Experts

Wikis are a great way to consolidate and document information. Wikis dedicated to niche topics are an important resource if they're current, thorough, and have a good following. WikiScuba is the scuba diving wiki that was almost the greatest idea ever. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be current, thorough, or have much of a following.

Let's read about the divers' best friend: the buoyancy compensator (BC). WikiScuba describes the BC in two paragraphs and not a single photo. The ever-complete Wikipedia describes the BC in many, many paragraphs including photos.

I wish supporters of the dive industry would consolidate web resources and stop launching redundant or orphaned resources. WikiScuba is just one example of a great idea that isn't new or necessary. Should the dive community support WikiScuba considering the existence of similar (and larger) resources?

Reader Comments

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1. There's no point in launching a new site that covers exactly the same territory as a pre-existing site. Unless you can do something *better* than the pre-existing site, what's the point? For example, why launch a new gadget site, when Engadget already rules the world? Similarly, Wikipedia already covers it all, so there's no point. Sorry WikiScuba...

Posted at 9:49AM on Dec 24th 2006 by Willy

2. I agree that the world doesn't need just-another-dive-site. On the other hand, there is no such thing as never-too-late for the right product. So when we decided to start www.wikidivers.com, we analyzed the current market. (The co-founders have over 30 years experience in developing corporate software, including web-based products, so this analysis is something we're familiar with.) We believe that the result is different. We have an internal page that describes those differences: http://wikidivers.com/twiki/tiki-index.php?page=Online+Tour+Why+Wiki+Divers.

We are still developing some of the features and we are working hard on content. Check us out and if you think we're doing something right, please sign up and contribute. If not, let us know and we'll fix it.

Thanks
Frank

Posted at 10:44PM on Jan 2nd 2007 by Frank McGuff

3. To clarify, you're talking about another wiki called WikiDivers (opposed to the WikiScuba mentioned in the story).

What the diving industry needs is a consolidated resource in the leagues of Wikipedia, Flickr, or digg. A site launched with innovation, a large following, and financial backing.

Posted at 2:28PM on Jan 3rd 2007 by Eric Brodeur

4. wikidivers.com is based on a full content management system so the number of features that it supports is much higher than the basic wiki software. The page http://wikidivers.com/twiki/tiki-index.php?page=Online+Tour+Why+Wiki+Divers explains the differences in more detail.

Wikipedia was not launched with any financial backing. All of its growth has been organic.

The problem with VC funding is that they will look for a substantial review stream fairly quickly. Having been involved in several VC funded startups, we specifically decided NOT to seek funding for wikidivers.com since we thought it would force us into a direction we didn't want to go.

Frank McGuff

Posted at 9:12PM on Jan 3rd 2007 by Frank McGuff

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