mark nottingham

Never Mind the Corporate Blogs; Here’s the Wiki

Saturday, 9 July 2005

While a lot of companies are exploring blogs as a means of building communities, Intuit* (makers of Quicken, TurboTax, etc.) has skipped directly to the next logical step; using Wikis.

TaxAlmanac is a Wiki about taxes, for tax professionals; they can browse the current Internal Revenue Code for free, ask a question and share information they’ve learned about one of the most obfuscated organisations in the world, the IRS. Why? In their words,

So, what’s the catch? There is no catch. Intuit believes that collectively the accountant community is smarter than any one individual. The collective knowledge of the entire accountant community is far more powerful than any handful of experts. We are pleased to be able to facilitate the group knowledge and insight of accountants from all walks of life. We are supporting this site as a way of giving back to the accounting community that has actively supported us.

Very cool; this shows real imagination — and guts, frankly — on Intuit’s part. Although it’s targeted at the professional community, it’ll doubtless be a real asset to individual taxpayers, and maybe even legislators, as well.

How long before GM or Volkswagen has a Wiki for mechanics?


One Comment

WikiTaxLaw said:

A new, free-access site similar to TaxAlmanac, but different in its focus and approach, is www.WikiTaxLaw.com allows users to read & write (in plain, understandable English) overviews for each section of the Internal Revenue Code; the general rule of each section & examples to illustrate; key exceptions & examples; references to other IRC sections, Treasury Regs, & Rev Rulings; references to IRS tax forms; legal and ethical tax-planning tips; suggestions of ways to clarify and simplify the Tax Code; and much more! WikiTaxLaw also provides advanced tools for searching the IRC. The site is a very useful resource to tax students, practitioners, and taxpayers alike!

Wednesday, October 3 2007 at 2:14 AM