There has been a lot of discussion lately about wikis and Enterprise 2.0. Much of this has been excellent but it has mostly been at a business or strategy level. I’d like to discuss how I think wiki software needs to adapt to be effective in an Enterprise environment.
Wikis can benefit from structure
One thing I’ve found in our wiki implementations with Fortune 500 customers is that wikis often benefit from more structure in the corporate world. Now I know that may sound counter to wiki principles but it doesn’t have to be. Structure is not the same thing as control.
In order for wikis to be self-organizing (this means agile and adaptive for those who want this in business terms) they need to leave control up to those who have the expertise and insight, rather than hard coded experts. So wikis can have more structure and still be self-organizing.
This structure can come in the form of any easy way to save articles templates. Or it can come in the form of basic, adaptive workflow that captures an email dialog and transitions that dialog into a wiki page when the dialog is relevant to the group.
Wikis and basic workflow, templates and forms
I know workflow has a bad reputation with wiki enthusiasts because it’s often associated with control and gate keeping. This may often be true but it doesn’t have to be. Simple workflow can be a way to jump start participation in an enterprise wiki. For example, if a corporate sales force is being introduced to a wiki giving them a structured way to send a question to the sales support team if they can’t find the content they are looking for is an easy way to get them involved with the wiki without having to learn anything new. And giving them a structured form to create new wiki pages is another way to add definition to the wiki and make it easier to learn how to contribute. For example, a template or form for a competitive profile can make it more likely that someone will take the time to share this information. It also makes it easier to create a stub article and build on it. If someone wants to start sharing information about a competitor they could start by just filling out the name and basic information and letting the group fill in details on an incremental basis.
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