wiki attitude

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Getting started with wikis. By Sunir Shah San
Diego, California October 18, 2005
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Part I.Background
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Working together
How do we work together before the Internet? (or
telephones)

• Artifacts
• Thing we are building
• Thing we are using
• Space
• Walls, doors
• Tables, chairs
• Bookshelves, cabinets

• Face-to-face (f2f)
• Meetings (incl. ad hoc)
• Encounters
• Documents
• Messages
• Reports
• Binders

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Working together on the Internet
How is the Internet different from f2f?
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Top-down vs. bottom-up

• Who owns, uses the network?
• Networks are expensive. Use is dictated
  top-down by investors (i.e. your boss).
• ERP, CRM,
• Networks are ubiquitous. Use is dictated
  bottom-up by people talking to people.
• E-mail, instant messaging, blogs, wikis

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Working online
We do what we are told to do. As employees, we
follow the process given to us. As users, we
follow the structure coded for us. We do what we
need to do. As workers, we work around the
process. As creatives, we build new, better
processes.
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Too much e-mail

• E-mail is the default exception handler.
• Software often fails, or doesnt exist,
• We use e-mail to cover the gap.
• E-mail is under our control.vs.
• Our e-mail is out of control.

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Problem stated

• We need more appropriate tools
• within our control
• that structure communication
• flexibly like furniture.
• (Think tables, chairs, bookshelves, corkboards,
  flipcharts, rooms, walls, doors, binders,
  cabinets, envelopes, paper.)

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Social software

• e-mail, instant messaging, chat, blogs, wikis.
• Software that mediates relationships between
  people.
• Simple, small, flexible.
• Constructed (by you) vs. structured (for you)
• Bottom-up vs. top-down.

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E-mail
Distance Time
Control
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E-mail

• Distance Time
  Control
• Structure
• Person-to-person conversations, encounters.
• Group discussions are a like a crowd.

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Wikis
Distance Time
Control
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Wikis

• Distance Time
  Control
• Structure
• Central focus of a conversation.
• (Like a flipchart, corkboard, whiteboard.)
• Group discussions are teamwork.

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What is a wiki?

• Like a whiteboard
• A wiki is a centralized resource. (web service)
• Content is persistent, but editable.
• Openly editable by everyone with access.

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What is a wiki?

• Unlike a whiteboard
• A wiki has infinite space (rather than 3x4).
• All versions are saved and tracked.
• A hypertext, not a drawing surface.
• ? Document-centric.
• You can use what you havent built yet.

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How wikis fit in

• Whenever you need an
• open space
• of common focus
• for a group
• constructing a common outcome,
• working over the Net,
• use a wiki.

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Part II.Use cases
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Knowledge preservation

• Ideas from conversations by a crowd are lost.
• Ideas are lost in your e-mail inbox.
• Conversations are repeated.
• Therefore, move conversations into a wiki.
• Common space, focus, outcome.
• ? Preserve and edit into knowledge.
• Knowledge base, FAQ, support QA, sales dossier,
  internal documentation, competitve intelligence.

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Document writing

• Using e-mail for collaborative document writing
  is document tennis.
• Everyone is blocked waiting for the current
  author to finish. (Power struggle.)
• Lose track of too many versions.
• Therefore, use a wiki to write the document.
• Paper, report, contract, RfP, standard.

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Process management

• Teams often use e-mail for ad-hoc processes.
• E-mail is best for one-on-one, private
  conversations.
• E-mail workflow is structured in our heads.
• Therefore, use a wiki for ad-hoc processes.
• Do group process in a common space.
• Build a workflow in a common artifact.

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Decision-making

• Group decision making involves
• Collecting resources, ideas, positions.
• Organizing points.
• Resolving positions.
• Writing common outcome.
• Building on top of the outcome
• Therefore, use a wiki to collect, organize,
  resolve, write, and build.

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Part III.Growing a wiki
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Gardening as a metaphor
content
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Need
Can only move workflow Cant just install it Look
for where your workflow hurts or problems you
need to build new workflow for
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Objective
Identify your objective
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Layout
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Seed posting
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Launch
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Marketing
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Norms
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Renorming
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Part IV.Tending a wiki
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Discussion and discussed
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Restructure top-down
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Restructure bottom-up
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Brainstorm-point form-reform
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Stripping
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