The Wiki is For...

Documentation and Instructions.  If you have information you need to make available to students, faculty, staff, or stakeholders such as parents of students or the general public, the wiki makes that easy to do.  You can quickly enter content into wiki pages, and updates are just as fast.  

Wiki pages are simple, and favor ease of editing and navigation over attractive design.  So while the wiki isn't as attractive as the main Canisius College website, they are easier for faculty and staff to edit.

They convey text, images, tabular data, embedded video, and even downloadable files such as .docx, .xlsx, or .pdf.  

Ideally, wiki pages are open to the entire internet.  In most wiki spaces this is by default, so no additional viewing or editing rights management is required by creators and editors.  

The wiki can limit access to spaces, or sets of pages, but this requires careful understanding and use of viewing and editing rights.  The simpler the arrangement, the better.  For example, limiting a particular page's access to Canisius faculty and staff is relatively easy.  However, limiting access to, for example, 92 separate staff members would be enormously tedious, and should only be done if worthwhile.  

Should It Be in the Wiki?

The wiki is for instructions and documentation.  It should not be used as an archive to store old, outdated, or simply stored documentation not relevant or appropriate for access beyond one or a few people.  Old files should be removed from the wiki when no longer accurate or relevant.  The more old documentation you leave in the wiki, the more you'll find that faculty, students, or the public approaches you with outdated information or expectations.  If it's out-of-date, remove it.  If you wish to archive it for your office or department, consider a Google Team Drive. 

The Wiki should not be used to store passwords or other highly sensitive information such as grades or private contact information.  Meeting minutes, or other documentation appropriate only for faculty or staff, or employees within a department or office can be stored in the wiki, although you need to ensure that appropriate sharing.

What Role Does the Wiki Play, versus Other Web Content Management Systems?

The wiki is for instructions and documentation served as pages organized into tree hierarchy.  It's chief benefit is easy of use: it's simple to learn how to get information onto the internet, and update it there when required. 

If you are sharing information that is seldom changed, and should particularly be public-facing in service of prospective students, consider instead adding it to your office page on the Canisius College website (www.canisius.edu and it's various pages.)  The wiki (based at wiki.canisius.edu) is a separate system, and serves the narrow purpose of provide documentation and instruction. The public Canisius College website is properly maintained by Marketing and Communication, and is meant to be an attractive public relations display for the college.  Where you may still use the wiki in supplying information for prospective students or outside stakeholders is providing information that you must frequently update, since the wiki is quicker and easier to edit than the pages at www.canisius.edu.  

A common plan for an office, department, or division is to have seldom-updated information on the main Canisius College site (or the Course Catalog), including links to wiki pages where information must be more frequently updated.  Also, the wiki can more efficiently present lengthy text, such as handbooks, manuals, or standalone guides.

The wiki can house and serve files but it is not the most efficient file repository.  For example, if you need to serve fifteen or so files to a committee but don't need information organized onto web pages arranged into a particular hierarchy, a shared Google Drive folder or Team Drive is probably better.  There is obvious overlap between the two systems, the wiki and Google Drive.  For sharing files in teams of staff or faculty, Google Drive is probably more efficient, since it's just easier to manipulate files there once the sharing rights have been established.  If you are not publishing to a larger community, the wiki might be as much or more work, as far as securing your information.