WHAT BIZWIKI IS
One of the newest, and I think best, adaptations of the Wiki model, made most famous by Wikipedia, is Bizwiki.co.uk, a free online business directory for the United Kingdom.
Aiming “to become the largest, most comprehensive directory of British businesses on the Web,” the site is currently in beta, with live launch scheduled before years end. To use all the features just register. Like its name suggests, the content can be created and edited by anyone with internet access.
WHY BIZWIKI IS GREAT
Have you ever tried to use the yellow pages to find something, only to discover the address has changed, the number is no longer valid, or the company’s gone out of business? Of course it’s happened to you, it’s happened to all of us, and it’s really annoying.
You can’t edit the yellow pages and you’ll have to wait until next year’s edition to see if someone caught the mistake. Worse yet, you still don’t have the information you need.
That’s the beauty of Bizwiki. Not only can you edit most entries, but you can also create them. It stands to reason the information should be more up to date, more accurate, and ultimately, much more useful.
THAT’S A GOOD IDEA
The registration feature allows Bizwiki editors to weed out all the spammers and pushers of both private and government propaganda. In a post from August 20, the company explains the importance of user trust.
In addition to the site's main purpose as a UK business directory, there is also a survey area, where users can post and read reviews of organizations and businesses based on a five-star rating.
USER INTERFACE
On the main page users can search for a business by entering the “Who or what” in a search box or enter a location and receive a lists of businesses in that area.
In addition, there’s an area entitled “Business Highlights, where a few businesses are featured along with their ranking. Below the fold you can browse the most popular categories.
TECH JARGON & OTHER TIDBITS
As I have no idea what any of this means and I fear paraphrasing may alter the meaning, I’m going to quote the source on this:
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.
Bizwiki is owned by Infoactive Global Ltd, a UK registered company.
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