[australia] Wikis in organisations

[Melanie Kendell]

On 12/10/06, White, David <David.White at railcorp.nsw.gov.au> wrote:
> I'd like to second Brad's request for info on how people are using
> wikis.

We are using a wiki for our group with branches for each project that
we're involved in. The main effort is a data warehousing project but
that is being driven by several business projects that want to use the
data and reporting framework - so they are quite heavily linked.

> They seem to be a potentially useful tool for the development of
> knowledge and perhaps content within an organisation.

Huge potential, not always realised.

> Is anyone here using a wiki within a business unit or whole of
> organisation?

I believe most intranets could benefit from being built on wiki lines.

> What are the important standards and online/offline
> processes required to make the wiki work well? (alliteration intentional

I think the most important thing is to give it air - don't stiffle it
with restrictions on who can edit what (malicious editing is rare,
especially when changes are tracked against users).

The hardest thing is to get people to actually put stuff on it. It's
worth having a wiki "editor" who seeks out content that should be
there and tidies up both content and structure. This creates a
positive cycle - wiki becomes more valuable > more people will use it
> more people contribute > wiki becomes more valuable.

Unfortunately, it's mostly left to the wiki advocates to squeeze in as
much as they can around they're normal jobs so wikis rarely fulfil
their potential as the fount of all current and correct knowledge.

-Melanie