The power of the wiki as a collaborative response to major events is clearly visible in the Gustav wiki, which is based on the Katrina wiki of 3 years ago. I was alerted to it by two colleagues who are active in working in nonprofit networks, Nancy White and Beth Kanter.

It is an example of a collaborative effort that provides a governance model (the main page is moderated by a few coordinators who keep it well organized; the Talk Page is open to anyone to edit. A Ning forum lets people self-organize to indicate who is doing what (this will be moved to the wiki soon).

Here you will also find emergent ideas for content, including a hashtag, #gustav, a Facebook page, comments, and suggestions (add a webcam?).

I have noticed in my work with networks that the nonprofit world has shown a greater readiness to adopt the new social tools available than our corporate worlds. Perhaps because networking is more natural to them because in the main they are people who like to work with people, successful “mission” networks (as I call them in Net Work) have a clear, shared commitment to an outcome. The examples they are producing should be great fodder for understanding how emergent networks in other organizations may learn to work organically and purposefully.