Blogs, Wikis, and RSS, Oh MY!

Collaborate and ProsperJesse Wilkins

February 5, 2009

BLOG THIS!

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What’s a blog?

• Started as online diaries• Today used more as lightweight CMS• Hides complexity of Web publishing• Generally arranged in chronological order, most

recent at top

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Informata

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Blogging basics

• Centralized - one person or group posts, others can only read the posts

• Comments and trackbacks• Easy to link to other pages• Easy to blog using toolbars• Important to keep current!

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Blog use cases

• Internal communications• Project management• Research• Knowledge management• Change order management

Blog Records Management

• If the CEO is blogging, is it a record?– Maybe…

• Most blogging systems support basic content management capabilities

• Review comments periodically– Or consider turning them off

• Track changes to postings, comments– Document reason for changes

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Consumer vs. enterprise blogs

• Control over implementation model

• Security and authentication

• Ease of use

• Audit trails

• Search and retrieval

• Reporting

• Support

• Syndication

Getting started

• Sign up for a free hosted service• Start posting• Keep posting!• Make it relevant if you want it to be read….• Consider commercial solutions

– More control over content– Finer-grained control over access, updates

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Microblogging

WIKI-WIKI

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Wiki-Wiki

• Wikipedia: 2,700,000+ articles in English– More than 10 million in 264 languages

• Wiktionary:1,131,000+ definitions in English• WikiQuote: 16,400+ quotations• Wikitravel: 20,500+ destination guides• Lyricwiki: 400,000+ song lyrics!

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Wikipedia

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The wiki basics

• Collaborative website• Organized as linked articles• Hides complexity of HTML from users• Easy to add articles• Easy to link articles• Easy to correct mistakes

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Wikipedia RM article

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How do you use a wiki?

Source: Stewart Mader, www.ikiw.org

Wikis are more archival than email, less process than Word.

-- Mike Cannon-Brookes

Co-founder and CEO of Atlassian

Collaboration: email vs. wiki

Source: Manny Wilson, CentCom and Intellipedia

There are plenty of ways tocommit career suicide; wikis are just the newest one.

Eric M. Johnson

State Department

Office of eDiplomacy

Commercial vs. enterprise

• Control over implementation model

• Security and identity

• Ease of use

• Audit trails

• Search and retrieval

• Reporting

• Integration and performance

Change tracking

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Implementing a wiki

• Sign up for a free hosted service• Start writing• Invite others to write• Moderate…or not• Consider a commercial wiki

– MUCH more control over look & feel, access rights/security, content

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REALLY SIMPLE RSS

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Really Simple Syndication

• XML-based content syndication language• Makes it easy for users to find your content• Push instead of pull• Most blogs and wikis support RSS natively

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How RSS works

• Find a website with a feed• Subscribe to the feed using a reader• Reader polls the website periodically and

downloads updated feed items• Read the feeds in the reader!

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Google Reader on iGoogle

RSS in Outlook 2007

Questions?

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ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Additional resources - blogs

• Blog Rules: A Business Guide to Managing Policy, Public Relations, and Legal Issues, Nancy Flynn, AMACOM Books, 2006.

• Blogging for Business: Everything You Need to Know and Why You Should Care, Shel Holtz and Tom Demopolous, Kaplan Business, 2006.

Additional resources - blogs

• Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers, Robert Scoble and Shel Israel, John Wiley & Sons, 2006.

• The Corporate Blogging Book: Everything You Need to Know to Get it Right, Debbie Weil, Portfolio Hardcover, 2006

Additional resources - blogs

• The Blog Council

http://www.blogcouncil.org

http://www.blogcouncil.org/blog

• Fortune 500 Blogs wiki

http://blogbusinesssummit.com/fortune500

Sample public blog policies

• IBM Social Computing Guidelineshttp://www.ibm.com/blogs/zz/en/guidelines.html

• Sun Guidelines on Public Discoursehttp://www.sun.com/communities/guidelines.jsp

• Easter Seals’ Internet Public Discourse Policyhttp://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/2008/04/nonprofit-blogg.html

Enterprise blog tools

• Atlassian Confluence

http://www.atlassian.com

• Awareness (formerly iUpload)

http://www.awarenessnetworks.com

• Blogtronix

http://blog.blogtronix.com/

Enterprise blog tools

• IBM Lotus Connections

www.ibm.com/lotus/connections

• Six Apart Movable Type

http://movabletype.com/

• Traction Teampage Enterprise Blog

http://www.tractionsoftware.com/

Enterprise microblogs

• Ididwork, http://www.ididwork.com/

• Laconica, http://laconi.ca

• Present.ly, http://presentlyapp.com/

• Socialcast, www.socialcast.com

• Trillr, https://trillr.coremedia.com/home/

• Yammer, www.yammer.com

Additional resources - wikis

• Everything is Miscellaneous, David Weinberger

• Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything, Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams

• Wikipatterns, Stewart Mader

• Wikis: Tools for Information Work and Collaboration, Jane Klobas

Additional resources - wikis

• Atlassian blogs:

http://blogs.atlassian.com/

• Brainkeeper blog:

http://www.brainkeeper.com/blog

• eTouch blog:

http://Blogs.etouch.net

Additional resources - wikis

• Socialtext blog: http://www.socialtext.com/blog/

• Ross Mayfield’s (Socialtext CEO) blog: http://ross.typepad.com/blog/

• Traction blog:

Visit their website and look for “BLOG”

Additional resources - wikis

• Wikinomics blog: http://www.wikinomics.com/blog/

• Wikinomics wiki: http://www.wikinomics.com/wiki

Enterprise wiki vendors

• Atlassian Confluence

• Brainkeeper

• eTouch SamePage

• Socialtext Enterprise Wiki

• Traction TeamPage

• Twiki