Started in 2006 and open as a public-beta since June of last year, Bizwiki is finally officially live today. We’re cutting the ribbon (or more literally, removing the Beta ribbon that’s been on the top left of all pages since last June) and announcing the site more widely to the general public.

We are very happy to be able to say that Bizwiki has already had over two thousand people sign up to help add content and edit the site, with many more expected now that the site is officially live. Now is a good time to thank everyone who has contributed to making this site what it is, thank you.

It’s all passed in a blur of new features being added, people signing up, improvements being made and a large amount of contributions to the information on the site, but believe it or not Bizwiki has now been live to the public for six months.

And what an eventful six months they have been, too.

We have continuously been impressed with the quality of information that has been added by the general public. Yes, there has been the occasional piece of ‘self-promotion’ or advertising-copy masquerading as a review, but that’s par for the course on the modern internet and most of these have been removed within hours. What is far more impressive is the amount of businesses that have been added, contributions submitted and genuine reviews we have received from people who are trying to help improve the quality of information available for others.

Why include reviews?

Bizwiki is dedicated to collecting and publishing business information rather than opinion, and the question of whether to include review functionality at all was debated early on in the project.

Our conclusion was that in some cases our visitors will want to know other peoples’ experiences with a business more than anything else, so we decided to add reviews as an alternative place for users to share opinions that would otherwise inevitably filter through into the business information.

After all, you can’t give users the right to edit the pages of a site and not expect them to want to express their views and opinions!

In answer to one of the frequent questions we have received during the process of building and planning the site, Bizwiki is planned to grow into an international directory of business.

We are starting with businesses in the United Kingdom, where most of our staff are based, but obviously the UK is not the only country that could benefit from an open directory for businesses. Versions of Bizwiki are planned for the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand over the next year.

Bizwiki is now live to the public as a beta! A lot of work remains to be done, and the team is feverishly slaving away on the full version of the site, but in the meantime we’ve opened it up for people to have a look around. Please feel free to sign up, look around, try it out and comment on absolutely anything! If you come across a serious error or problem on the site, feel free to report it.

I think the best description of the technical team behind Bizwiki is ‘Nervously Proud’. Imagine a new father outside a maternity ward, waiting to hear whether all the fingers and toes arrived with the main package, and you probably have it in a nutshell.

But most importantly, welcome to the Bizwiki Beta, a taste of what’s to come in the world of online business!