wikis are wonderful, or are they? a real world story of using wikis for user information
DESCRIPTION
This presentation was delivered by Alan Porter, Quadralay WebWorks.com at the Documentation and Training West 2008 conference (www.doctrain.com) in Vancouver, BC.Wikis seem to be the poster child of Web2.0 content delivery. But how practical are they for creating and delivering content that people can really use? Relive the experience of the Quadralay WebWorks.com team of setting up not just one -- but three different wikis -- each designed to meet a different need and have a defined role in delivering information for different audiences. Find out how they populated them, how they were received by customers, and how they published traditional online help from wiki content.TRANSCRIPT
Wikis Are Wonderful, or Are They?
DocTrain West – Vancouver, May 7, 2008
© 2008 – Quadralay Corporation
Wiki, Wiki, Wiki….
Wikis Are Everywhere
Consumer Wikis
• General Knowledge Wikis
• Special Interest Wikis
• Personal Wikis
Business Wikis
• Internal Corporate Information
• Customer Information
• Online Documentation
© 2008 – Quadralay Corporation
Wikis Are Easy To Use
Easy to set up
Easy to Edit
So simple that anyone can contribute to them.
Just load, populate, and go.
© 2008 – Quadralay Corporation
Wikis Are Just Cool
Enabling collaboration.
User generated content.
Tagging
Built in version control and change tracking tools.
The next step in online publishing?
Its so Web 2.0
It may be fine for Wikipedia – but what about using a wiki in your business?
© 2008 – Quadralay Corporation
WebWorks.com
• WebWorks.com - a brand of Quadralay Corporation
• Over 15,000 licensed users in 33 countries
• Over 2000 Companies use WebWorks products
• Focused core staff with a common vision.
• Industry leading Publishing Platform
• Founded in 1992 as part of UT Technology Incubator Program.
• We see ourselves as a “mature start up”
Our Mission Is To Help You Deliver
“Your Content. Your Way. Every Time.”
© 2008 – Quadralay Corporation
ePublisher Platform – The Map
Out of the box InputSupported OutputsCustom Configuration
MS Word
XML
DITA
FrameMaker
Input Adapter
HTML
WW Help
HTML Help
PDA
Custom Format
Java Help
FrameScript
DocBook
Custom DTD
Web Site WebHelp
Custom WWHelp
FD Reviewer
WIKI
XML
WIKI Publishing
VB
© 2008 – Quadralay Corporation
WebWorks a Wiki Company?
Do we develop and sell wiki software ?
NO So why are we a “Wiki Company?”
Because wiki’s drive our business. We have 4 in operation with at least one more to come on
line in 2008
© 2008 – Quadralay Corporation
WebWorks & Wikis – A History
2003 – First wiki was installed for use by the software development team.
2005 – Project Trac wiki was selected for use by Services Group to communicate with customers.
2006 – Internal and External wiki software (Moin Moin) selected.
2006 – Dev Wiki expanded to become company wide “Inner Wiki”
2007 - External “Help Center” wiki launched (wiki.webworks.com)
2007 – “proof of concept” wiki publishing demo at RoundUp
2008 – RoundUp wiki launched (webworksroundup.com)
2008 – Documentation wiki project underway.
© 2008 – Quadralay Corporation
The Fount of All Knowledge – The Inner Wiki
© 2008 – Quadralay Corporation
The Inner Wiki
Replaced static Intranet pages with interactive “knowledge capture”.
Used for every aspect of company business.
If it isn’t on the wiki it doesn’t exist.
90% of staff have contributed
80% contribute at least once a month.
50% contribute something several times a week.
One Hours training backed up by a lunch time brown bag after restructuring or software upgrades.
Increased cooperation
Reduced training costs
Shortened sales cycles
Keeps everyone informed.
The depository of record (no more email chases)
© 2008 – Quadralay Corporation
Inner Wiki - What We Learned
Encourage contribution through social means.
If want people to contribute then YOU have to contribute.
Some people just will not contribute – don’t force it.
Give verbal feedback on contributions.
Have senior people review contributions every day.
Keep wiki as open as possible – encourages cross functional communications.
Wikis need maintenance
We should have defined at least a basic structure first.
You need a WIki Maven – someone passionate about maintenance and upkeep of the wiki.
© 2008 – Quadralay Corporation
Help Center Wiki
© 2008 – Quadralay Corporation
Help Center Wiki
Purpose – to promote information exchange with and between customers
Initially populated by WebWorks staff
Development and Support Engineers systematically continue to add content.
User contributions
User enhancement requests
User Projects area
Just-in-time documentation updates
© 2008 – Quadralay Corporation
Help Center Wiki – What We Learned
User login administration
Change structure from Developer Centric to User Centric
It takes cheer-leaders to bring others to the wiki.
How do we differentiate between what’s “official” and what isn’t?
Enable comments rather than editing rights ?
How do you collect the feedback?
How do you integrate with other documentation sources?
© 2008 – Quadralay Corporation
RoundUp Conference Wiki
© 2008 – Quadralay Corporation
RoundUp Wiki
Last year found managing and updating static HTML pages linked to main website a bottle neck.
Needed ability to do quick updates and makes sure only latest information posted.
Open to multiple authors who are responsible for different aspects of conference organization.
Allow speakers to update and post information as needed.
It also serves another purpose…
How well does a wiki work as a website?
© 2008 – Quadralay Corporation
RoundUp Wiki – Lessons Learned
Harder to give it corporate look and feel
Easy to update text – not so easy for graphic design work.
Turning off the visible wiki edit controls makes it look more like a website but means extra steps for contributors.
Still early days and compiling other points.
© 2008 – Quadralay Corporation
Services Project Wiki
© 2008 – Quadralay Corporation
Services Projects Wiki
Used to facilitate communications and knowledge sharing with services customers.
Single point of contact / single source of information.
Description / Contacts / Scope / Notes / Reference Materials / Deliveries log.
Timeline of edits
Project Roadmap with milestones.
Task Ticket creation and tracking.
© 2008 – Quadralay Corporation
Services Projects Wiki – Lessons Learned
Small amount of additional training for customers at project start.
Transcribing costumer e-mails
Once working – speeds communications
Everyone on project works from same data
Encourages collaborations
Speeds project review
Reduces costs.
© 2008 – Quadralay Corporation
So Are Wikis Wonderful?
Wikis are easy to start and easy to contribute to.
Don’t expect huge contributor numbers – even Wikipedia has a less than 1% contributor rate.
Passionate people will share – that can be good – it can be bad.
You don’t need to be a “code jockey” to start and write a wiki.
Every branch of publishing is looking at wikis.
Wikis need planning
Wikis need management
Wikis will do for online publishing what HTML did for online authoring
So what’s our next step with wikis?
© 2008 – Quadralay Corporation
The Documentation Project
Six month project to rewrite our documentation set.
Using specialist outside author who is “power user” of product.
Project managed using the Project Wiki
Authoring done in structured FrameMaker (DITA)
ePublisher will populate out to new wiki - docs.webworks.com
Invite contribution, feedback from MVP/SMEs in user community.
This will be a development test bed for DITA / Wiki publishing
Feedback process being designed.
© 2008 – Quadralay Corporation
WebWorks ePublisher & Wikis
ePublisher FALL 2008 release
will include
Productized “PUBLISH TO WIKI” functionality.
Publish your Word, Frame or XML content to a wiki
© 2008 – Quadralay Corporation
Contact Details
Alan J. Porter
VP-Operations
WebWorks.com
512-381-8892
Or you can even find me on Wikipedia…