[australia] Wikis in organisations

[Warren James Crosbie]

David, 
I have been using a wiki for my literature review on communities of practice (CoPs) and online tagging (e.g. Delicious). 

I believe a key challenge for wikis woulb be to have them share data with other applications. A wiki may be but one application in a suite of tools that allow easy content creation (and perhaps syndication). 

A key question is: Who will be your wiki users? Even in large organisations as few as 1 per cent of potential users may warm to your technology; similarly with blogs. 
Managing the flexibility of wikis is really a social issue, rather than a technical one. 
Perhaps it’s worth considering wikis in the same context of the Friday drinks or bbqs: we don’t know why they make a difference, but well give them a go anyhow; CM Pro' Howard Sachs uses the phrase: 'soft ROI'. Some KM professionals suggest using Wikis for the important content within organisations that doesn’t make into the financial reports, e.g. births, retirements, good stories, fun stuff, original cartoons. Perhaps such an approach could be a low cost way to build interest? 

Joab Jackson’s euphoric article might be of interest 'The amazing wikis', Government Computer News (US), via http://www.gcn.com/print/25_25/41673-1.html

Warren Crosbie
RMIT, Melbourne
http://tagunity.wikispaces.com/introduction

-----Original Message-----
From: "White, David" <David.White at railcorp.nsw.gov.au>
To: <australia at lists.cmprofessionals.org>
Date: Thu, 12 Oct 2006 10:56:15 +1000
Subject: [australia] Wikis in organisations

I'd like to second Brad's request for info on how people are using wikis.

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

Is anyone here using a wiki within a business unit or whole of organisation? What are the important standards and online/offline processes required to make the wiki work well? (alliteration intentional
:)