5 Differences Between Wikipedia and Enterprise Wikis
Enterprise wikis and Internet wikis (of which Wikipedia and Wikitravel are examples) provide the same basic function – the ability to edit content in a web browser – but they differ in several significant ways: 1. Spaces Internet wikis often have all content housed in one “place,” so that any user can see the entirety […]
First-ever Wikipatterns.com User Survey: Have Your Say!
If you’re a registered member of Wikipatterns.com, you should have received an email in the last 24 hours regarding the first-ever Wikipatterns.com user survey. Laurence Lock Lee, James Matheson, and I co-developed the survey to study the knowledge retrieval, sharing, and interaction patterns within the Wikipatterns.com community, and your perceived value from your use of […]
254 People Visited Wikipatterns.com Theatre at Web 2.0 Expo!
Chris Kohlhardt of Gliffy presents in the Theatre I organized the Wikipatterns.com Theatre in the Atlassian booth at Web 2.0 Expo last week, and I’m very happy to report that over the three days 254 people attended presentations on wiki adoption tips, best practices, and strategies. To everyone who attended, a huge thank you! I […]
Free copy of Wikipatterns book at Web 2.0 Expo!
If you’ll be at Web 2.0 Expo San Francisco this week, you’re invited to Wikipatterns Theatre Wednesday, April 23rd through Friday April 25th in the Atlassian booth, #535. Presentations will be held every hour, on the hour during the open hours of the expo. Presentations last about 5 minutes, with 5-10 minutes for Q&A afterward, […]
4 Challenges to Wiki Adoption in Organizations: #3 Experience Outside Drives Adoption Inside
Sandy Kemsley’s third challenge to social media/enterprise 2.0 adoption in organizations: Having people immerse themselves in the creation and/or consumption of blogs and wikis in the wild is essential to having them understand why this is important within their company. This is the key difference between the new generation of tools like blogs & wikis, […]
4 Challenges to Wiki Adoption in Organizations: #2 Odd-Sounding Names
The second challenge to social media/enterprise 2.0 adoption that Sandy Kemsley cites has to do with the names of these tools, and the notion that we: …feel a bit silly stating that we blog (as opposed to maintaining a reverse chronological online journal), or use a wiki (as opposed to a collaborative editing workspace). Seriously […]
How Technical Writers Use Confluence and DITA XML
Anne Gentle writes about a presentation on a customer and documentation wiki sourced with DITA topics by Lisa Dyer of Lombardi Software at the February Central Texas DITA User Group meeting. Lisa’s presentation explores how the company is using DITA and a wiki as the framework for collaborative information development, both internally and with customers […]
How do you use a wiki? Poll results
On Monday, I posted a reader poll over on Grow Your Wiki asking how people use wikis in organizations. As of last night, 127 people responded, and here’s what they had to say: There were three respondents who chose “Other”, and here are their specific responses: Managing classroom information, garbage trash, and audits. Now, I […]
4 Challenges to Wiki Adoption in Organizations: #1 High-Level Resistance
Sandy Kemsley writes about 4 challenges to social media/enterprise 2.0 adoption that organizations. The first is resistance at the high-level: …higher-level people are more resistant to bringing in Enterprise 2.0 technologies because it represents a democratization of content and a relative loss of power at their level. What they have to realize is that people […]
Want to speak at WikiSym 2008? What’s WikiFest?
The WikiSym 2008 Call for Papers is available now. WikiSym will be held 8-10 September in Porto, Portugal! WikiFest – 6:00 talks WikiFest is a new addition this year. It’s devoted to helping you start and grow a successful wiki, and I’ve structured it Pecha Kucha style which means max 6 minutes and 20 slides […]
Jason Fried: If you want success, follow the chefs
Jason Fried of 37signals spoke last Friday at SXSW Interactive about the lessons he’s learned from building the successful, Chicago-based software company. All 14 lessons are priceless, but #9 stands out the most for me: Lesson 9: Follow the Chefs Jason called chefs the smartest business professionals. He explained this is because they are aware […]
A Tale of Two Wikis: Techniques for building, managing and promoting collaborative communities
Just found this excellent paper by Laurence Parry from the 2006 Wikimania conference. It focuses on starting and building a community wiki, and a lot of his ideas, tips, and advice also apply to wiki use in organizations: …why would you want to build such a wiki in the first place, and why would such […]
Wikis at the White House
In a recent Washington Post article, Stephen Barr explores how the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is using a wiki to track earmarks in the federal budget. Earmarking is a process by which members of Congress designate money for specific projects, often in their home states or congressional districts. With the wiki, […]
APC’s 7 Strategies for Implementing a Successful Corporate Wiki
Industry Week reports on the results of a study on wikis in business by the Society for Information Management’s Advanced Practices Council (APC). When considering use of wikis, CIOs should keep in mind that in reality, a large number of companies may already have employees using wikis for work purposes without the authority to do […]
Why using a wiki instead of email or documents will multiply your collaboration effectiveness
John Tropia recently explained how wikis (along with blogs and social networks) enable better knowledge sharing. To set up the comparison, here’s how he described the struggle to share tacit knowledge using a traditional document management system: “Let’s not even talk about sharing personal information and thoughts (supposed tacit
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