How we wiki

How we wiki
Bobby Graham: Director Web Publishing (Acting)
National Library of Australia
Gov 2.0 Conference: 19 October 2009

Vital statistics
The Library has 450 employees.
We implemented our first wiki in 2006.
We have 100+ wiki spaces.
We use Confluence.
Now we have two wikis: internal and external.

Why wiki?
We support transparency of information.
We engage with other libraries – nationally and internationally.
We have a professional interest in information management.

Why Confluence?
It was compatible with our systems infrastructure.
It is widely used by corporate organisations.
We had an existing relationship and experience with the company.
It has an active open source community, building macros and plug-ins.

What wiki features?
WYSIWYG editor
Pages, news items and comments
Access control
One installation; multiple wikis
Export to PDF and MS Word

What wiki stuff we like
Browser based editing
Versioning
Recently updated listing
Search
Pages print well

Wiki flexibility
It happens now
Easy to restructure
History
Easy to roll back
But . . . flexibility, freedom, trust = uncertainty

Wiki engagement
Anyone can participate in the wiki.
All staff can access, read and edit any wiki space.
All staff can freely con-tribute new content using any web browser.
We all collaborate.

Wiki governance
Admin is by community.
Any wiki user can fix spelling, formatting, grammar or structure.
Author is recorded.
We can roll back to a previous version.
Space administrators

Wiki transparency
We share information.
All staff can collaborate on any project or topic.
All staff can share infor-mation across all APS levels.

Work in teams
We could work in a group or in a project team.
We work across teams and projects.
We collaborate internally and externally.
Each community space is like a mini wiki in its own right.

What kind of projects?
We manage the Library’s collections.
We look after the Library’s readers and users.
We plan to implement new services.
We work in divisional, branch and group projects.

How we wiki
Pages are the building blocks of the wiki.
A statement of purpose is a good way to start.
We add content like text, images and tables.
We attach files.
We can find stuff: any location is good.
We (sometimes) archive stuff.

What we wiki
We plan, draft and write documents.
We prepare project plans.
We manage activity schedules.
We maintain rosters and planning docs.
Sometimes we improve business processes.

Wiki woes
Wiki users expect Word.
They miss structure and presentation.
Some resist a new system.
Users may not commit or own spaces or pages.
It’s easy to publish and forget, or not archive.
Wiki is yet another place to publish (not).

Case study: How to improve a business process
400+ procedures documents . . . In various Excel spreadsheets
How to share information in all of these docs?
How to update the documents?
Where to publish them?
Who is responsible?!

What was the outcome?
Reduced no. of documents
Source files updated and maintained.
Archived in TRIM.
Content published on intranet and linked to TRIM.
Updated content always available to users.
Four staff members maintain the wiki page.

What wikis?
Internalwiki space: all staff can view and edit.
Closed wiki space: a group of external and internal users can view and edit.
Public wiki space: all staff can view and edit, public can view only.
External wiki space: ex-ternal users and all staff can edit and view.

What have we learnt?
People may make mistakes, but they will take responsibility for:
their own learning
organising things
tidying up
Given the opportunity:
they have good ideas
learn from each other

What works well?
Documenting services
Documenting processes
Working and writing collaboratively
Collaborating with external partners

What doesn’t work well?
The wiki could be used for what it was never intended:
archiving
publishing workflows
publishing secure documents
Blog style writing

Is wiki successful?
How should we measure success?
100+ wikis implemented in three years
10 public wiki spaces
12 closed wiki groups
Continued use of service

Wiki future
We plan to improve the interface: add themes.
We’d like to make browsing more pleasant.
We plan to improve wiki help and guidance.
We’d like to assist with training.

With thanks to Michele Huston for her direction and leadershipAll images courtesy of the National Library of Australiabgraham@nla.gov.auTel: 02 6262 1542http://libertylittlebasil.blogspot.com/@LibertyBasil

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How we wiki

by Slobodanka (Bobby) Graham on Oct 19, 2009

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How we wiki — Presentation Transcript