[australia] FW: Engaging contributors

[Matthew Moore]

Alfie Kohn has some interesting criticism of reward-based systems in general: http://www.alfiekohn.org/index.html

Catherine's comment about rewards leading to quantity as opposed to quality reflect what I have observed in organisations. Just before appraisal time, the Knowledge Bank (or whatever its called) gets filled a gazillions of submissions of varying quality. A better way is to ensure i. writers get regular feedback from readers & that ii. management sees the creation of content as meaningful & vital work - and therefore budgets time & resources for it.

I absolutely agree with a 'whole of organisation' approach. Where this overlaps with Marius' comments about Wikipedia is that it's collaborative between content writers, publishers & readers. Whether you use wiki technology or not, the creation & consumption of content (which from an intranet prespective boils down to media that helps people do their jobs) has to involve & engage people - and bind them together. Content has a lifecycle & a flow beyond the straight-foward editing & publishing functionalities that most CMSes currently offer. And engaging with people is often a lot harder than just putting something up on an intranet. So hence happens less often.

Most organisations do not exist to produce content & hence it can get forgotten but if the late Peter Drucker is right & we are increasingly an economy of knowledge workers then it becomes something they have to get proficient at managing resources that support these activities.

  -----Original Message-----
  From: australia-bounces at lists.cmprofessionals.org [mailto:australia-bounces at lists.cmprofessionals.org]On Behalf Of Catherine Doran
  Sent: Thursday, 13 July 2006 3:29 PM
  To: australia at lists.cmprofessionals.org
  Subject: Re: [australia] FW: Engaging contributors


  Hi,

  We currently operate on a very centralised system, requesting content from staff where appropriate. In most cases the content is forwarded and then we add it into the CMS.

  The problem I could foresee with the incentive system as suggested below is that quality may suffer - if it turns into a competitive environment there would need to be some kind of system for assessing quality as well as quantity - many pages of badly written content aren't as valuable as one succinct, easy to understand page!

  My preferred method would be for this to be a 'whole of organisation' process - if a staff member or team has responsibility for something which has a presence on the intranet or website, part of their role would be to provide (and where appropriate maintain) this content. This means it needs to be a process which is driven from the management level, requiring full commitment from all levels of staff - not always easy! This is where we need to prove the business value of an intranet/website and ensure that this is endorsed (preferably signed off) by management.

  Just my thoughts!

  Catherine

  Catherine Doran | Project Manager - Knowledge, Sustainability Victoria

  T: 03 9639 3322 | F: 03 9639 3077 | 2/478 Albert Street, East Melbourne 3002 | www.sustainability.vic.gov.au






------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  From: Ritchie, Michele 
  Sent: Thursday, July 13, 2006 11:15 AM
  To: 'Marius Coomans'
  Subject: RE: [australia] Engaging contributors [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]


  Marius

  I recall at a seminar I went to some years ago, there were some suggestions as to how to get people to contribute and that was to give rewards or incentives; some ways include:

    a.. publish (in a newsletter?) how many times this month each person has contributed - sometimes people get competitive and want others to see they have contributed the most for the month
    b.. have a monthly reward for the person who has contributed the most - bottle of wine, movie voucher etc.
    c.. make contributing to the intranet one of the goals in their Peformance Appraisal contract; they agree to contribute content at least once a month or whatever, so then you have some accountability.
  I have not used these ideas in practice, but I could see them working in some organisations.

  kind regards

  Michele Ritchie
  Information Manager 
  National Measurement Institute 
  PO Box 385,  Pymble  NSW  2073
  AUSTRALIA 
  +61 2 9449 0129 (t)    +61 2 9449 1653 (f) 
  michele.ritchie at measurement.gov.au 
  http://www.measurement.gov.au 

  Save time, save stress ... ask a Librarian.




------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  From: australia-bounces at lists.cmprofessionals.org [mailto:australia-bounces at lists.cmprofessionals.org] On Behalf Of Marius Coomans
  Sent: Thursday, July 13, 2006 9:18 AM
  To: australia at lists.cmprofessionals.org
  Subject: [australia] Engaging contributors


  I received some encouraging emails in response to my last message, so I'm sufficiently emboldened to help breath a bit of life into this list. With its eclectic array of subscribers, there is bound to be a great store of wisdom and experience here. 

  So:

  Over the past 10 years, our industry has (largely) mastered the technology and processes to successfully implement Content Management Systems. However, in many cases, those systems still fail to engage those who have most content to contribute. 

  Why is that? How can our success rate be improved? How do we balance "process" with "creativity"? Can we leverage the success of Weblogs and that of Wikipedia? 


  Marius Coomans
  Active Web Communications
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