Wikis in Knowledge Management: Enabling Effective CollaborationColin MooneyDIT, Kevin Street.07/11/2009

TopicsIntroduction How Knowledge Management Works?Knowledge Management & Web 2.0AIB ‘OnePlace’ Wiki PilotConclusions & Future WorkQ&A

Introduction2008MSc: Computing (Knowledge Management) at the Dublin Institute of Technology.Dissertation: “Wiki-Based Collaboration in a large Organisation: An Enabler of Effective Knowledge Management.”2009MSc: Operations & Technology Management at Dublin City University Centre for Executive Education.Dissertation: “Strategic Options for Captive O&T Divisions towards becoming BPO providers.”

How KM Works?What is knowledge Management?

What is Knowledge Management?“...what people know, and how what they know can support business and organisational objectives. It draws on human competency, intuition, ideas, and motivations.”“is a collective process of capturing, modelling and organising individuals knowledge into an organisations’ single repository so as to facilitate its reuse and sharing among the employees and other stakeholders for the purposes of new insights.”“Is creating an environment where people have ease of access to knowledge which makes a difference to their everyday working lives. “It is not just about the systems we use to make knowledge available. It is how we share that knowledge – the processes and procedures that surround those systems that enable effective knowledge sharing. It’s interacting and thinking outside the box and having the tools to collaborate on these ideas.”

What is Knowledge Management?Tacit KnowledgeKnowledge SharingCollaborationKnowledge RetentionTeam WorkProductivityCommunicationExpertiseKM SystemsContent ManagementDocument ManagementKnowledge DiscoveryKnowledge BasesWeb 2.0Enabling Virtual TeamsICT Tools1. People Perspective2. Technology Perspective3. Organisational Perspective

KM CycleCaptureIdentifyAnalysePromoteRewardEncourageTaxonomyMetadataStructureMake VisibleConsistentAccessible

Capture

Identify

Analyse

Promote

Reward

Encourage

Taxonomy

Metadata

Structure

Make Visible

Consistent

Accessible

Spiral of Knowledge

Knowledge Networks: CollaborationKnowledge Management is about connecting people together, therefore collaboration is key to successful knowledge management.Large Organisations are made up of many networks, with key players who act as information brokers, boundary spanners, central connectors, and peripheral specialists. (Cross & Prusak 2002)By analysing these networks, we can understand the knowledge flows in an organisation.

Collaboration - Email

Benefits of KMAvoiding Redundant EffortAvoiding Repeated MistakesTaking Advantage of Existing ExpertiseMaking Individuals More EffectiveMaking Teams More Effective(Garfield 2008)

KM & Web 2.0A New Era“The world wide web has been instrumental in catalysing the knowledge management movement. Since knowledge and the value of harnessing it have always been with us, it must be the availability of these newer technologies that has stoked the knowledge fire.” (Davenport and Prusak 2000)

Web 2.0“The internet is evolving from a channel for content distribution to a platform for collaboration, sharing and innovation.” (Gilroy and Ives 2006)3 Principles:The Web has become a collaboration space.The Web is now a platform to publish and create.The Web has become an innovation platform, which enables increased idea sharing.

Web 2.0 Features - SLATESSearching – Enabling people to find what they are looking for.Linking – Connecting knowledge.Authoring – Everyone becomes an expert.Tagging – Recommending and rating content.Extensions – Plugins, Inter-Connectivity.Signals – Notification and Syndication (McAfee 2006)

The Wiki Way!Wikis make it easy to keep all your information current and accurate. Information stored in a wiki is dynamic. With wikis, anyone can edit a page (depending on their access privileges / role).Wikis keep your information safe. You can view changes made by different users or rollback to previous versions. Even as members of your team turn over and new employees are hired, the wiki can be an unbroken repository of knowledge that evolves with your organisation.

Enterprise Wiki RequirementsControl & SecuritySpacesPermissions and RolesEnterprise IntegrationLDAP Integration and Single sign-onApplication & Database optionsContent OrganisationHierarchyAttachments: Automatic versioning & WebDAV (Attachments at the desktop)Fast and Accurate SearchingAll content (pages, attachments, comments, etc) controlled by user permissionsFull-text attachment searching

Collaboration – Wiki / Portal

Enterprise Wiki PilotOnePlace Wiki Pilot at AIB Bank

OnePlace

Drivers of SuccessTop-Down From Senior ManagementLaterally through COP’sBottom-Up from Grassroots

The ApproachEngage Senior Management to back the initiative.Secure exclusive, high profile use-cases for the portal.Brand the portal to promote its use.Meet with prospective teams and user groups to gauge reaction.Drive wiki adoption by becoming a ‘Wiki Champion’.

“Selling KM”: Language is KeyTo demonstrate the commercial wiki products were now ready for use in an enterprise environment for business applications. To encourage collaboration between teams in the “O&T Community” through the use of the “OnePlace” wiki portal. To position wiki technology as part of the overall suite of collaboration tools in the pilot organisation.To analyse the reaction and comments of users involved in the pilot.

Wiki ChampionBe a Clear Communicator: Keep things simple ... Be A Coach: You will need to coach the early users ... Be Patient: Be patient with your early adopters ... Be Enthusiastic: People will react to your enthusiasm ... Be Engaging: Be available to discuss or help ... Have Fun!: It will help you succeed.

https://oneplace.aib.pri

Conclusions & Future WorkCollaboration, Knowledge Management, Wikis....

ConclusionsKnowledge Management is much more about people and the processes which enable knowledge management than specific technologies.Simplicity is important, providing knowledge workers with the tools to quickly capture, organise, share and reuse knowledge which is important to their work.Portals and Web-based tools are enabling and improving virtual collaboration for virtual teams.

Conclusions ctnd..Success Factors:Starting with high-value or exclusive knowledge.Engaging senior ranking users.Target focused pilot group(s) within each department.Securing use across a wide variety of departments.

“Social Computing Changes The EnterpriseCollaboration Landscape”

Email: mooneycol@gmail.com Blog: http://www.extacit.blogspot.com LinkedIn: http://ie.linkedin.com/in/colinmooney

ReferencesCross, R. And Prusak L. 2002. The People Who Make Organisations Go - or Stop. Harvard Business Review. 80 (6) , pp105-112.Davenport, T. and Prusak, L. 2000. Working Knowledge: How Organisations Manage What They Know. United States of America: Harvard Business Press.Garfield, S. 2008. Weekly Knowledge Management blog by Stan Garfield. [Online]. Available from: http://h20325.www2.hp.com/blogs/garfield/archive/2008/02/13/5734.htmlGilroy, K. and Ives, B. 2006. Preparing for “intranet 2.0” – how to integrate new communication technology into your intranet IN:Transforming your intranet. United States of America:Melcrum.Koplowitz, R. Brown, M. And Barnett, J. 2008. “Social Computing Changes The Enterprise Collaboration Landscape”, Forrester ResearchMcAfee, A. 2006.Enterprise 2.0: The Dawn of Emergent Collaboration. MIT Sloan Management Review. 47 (3), pp21-28.