[Wednesday, 13 May 2009] The Straits Times.  Business continuity plans (BCP) are necessary for managing an unexpected crisis, such as the ongoing Influenza A, so that businesses can operate as usual.That, however, is not all there is to crisis management, which requires organizations to know how to execute those plans. In Japan, for instance, BCP is viewed in the same light as crisis management.To standardize about 250 terms used in a business continuity management (BCM) course, a training institute here turned to the Wiki community.

The Business Continuity Management Institute (BCM Institute) runs certification courses on BCM for students in 36 countries. Said BCM Institute's president Goh Moh Heng: “Arguments over terminology between instructors were common because they don’t speak the same language and they come from different professional and cultural backgrounds.”

Three staff members of the Singapore-based BCM Institute took six weeks to build its BCMpedia Wiki using the open-source Media Wiki platform. It went line in September last year.Unlike the popular Wikipedia online encyclopedia, Moh Heng said there are no plans to open BCMpedia up for public editing because the institute lacks the manpower to monitor changes to BCMpedia as well as block potential pranksters. However, anyone can propose changes through an online change request form.

Through the Wiki, BCM Institute has increased its pool of contributors to include international BCM experts whom Moh Heng found through LinkedIn, a professional social network site.