As many of you know i run a software company and as many of you also know software companies (smaller ones - we are not talking Microsoft here) are not the greatest at producing documentation

Now we have several great products which are out in the market place which are developed and updated on a regular basis. We have major version releases at least once a year which means trying to produce a manual from a standing start is nigh on impossible for one person to do. We have tried various things - simple word docs, Robohelp etc, but by the time you get even a fraction of the way through - the product has changed significantly (and it's a BIG product).

I was thinking of creating a Wiki which would mean several people could then work on it simultaneously - as well as getting some users to contribute to it (some select users have expressed an interest in doing this). As the products then evolve, sections could evolve with them such as user guides, how-to's, tip's and tricks etc which we would be happy to have users contribute to.

Would a Wiki work for a commercial product help system? If not why not?

I'd like to get release notes put on it and all sorts of things (in fact i'm getting a spec put together as we speak).

Does anyone have any examples of Wiki-manual sites (not wikipedia but for a software product i am thinking here).

And lastly if i do go ahead and do it, is there anyone out there that would be interested in setting it up for us who has done something similar before and earn some extra money for the modding fund without SWMBO knowing about it??

I could help you set it up if you like - sounds a good idea. Think www.webopedia("dot") co ("dot") uk started it for a while on new software products - I think that so many people were contributing to the work it was causing HUGE overlaps. This also ment that extra time had to go into proof reading everything.

How Big is this going to be - one product? or many? Good idea tho - need any help just shout always willing to lend a hand.