Federal Computer Week is not a part of my typical required reading list, however John Zyskowski's Tending the wiki garden offered some great advice on wiki growth and care.
In Zyskowski's opinion, wikis offer the kinds of collaborative, transparent, efficient and unpredictable (in a good way) characteristics that government agencies are looking to implement.
As a proponent of the use of wikis, this is very true, but it's important to remember when dealing with a wiki implementation - at least in the early stages - it is not a "if you build it, they will come" playing field. It will take on-going work and cultivation.
Accessibility. In your wiki selection, pick a tool that can easily be learned by the public you're intending to reach as contributes. Many wikis require a basic level of understanding of wiki markup language which is similar to HTML. For a properly setup wiki, this does not have to be a deterrent, but when beginning with a blank canvass, this could cause a barrier to acceptance and use if this is not considered.
Perhaps one of the most important pieces of advice from the article for anyone implementing a wiki is that in order to get people to contribute content, there must first be enough content to garner interest and to which users have something to edit or add
The next suggestion requires that wiki management encourage while lightly controlling during the early stages.... The idea of a wiki is to have a completely open collaborative environment that can accommodate a wide variety of projects. However, if users work to create pages too specific to their use only, or silo-ed pages are created by the subject matter expert and not editable, this defeats the purpose of the wiki and discourages new users...
...while a fan and user of Wikipedia, I find it to be a bit locked down and uninviting to new users who may find their additions heavily redacted or removed. A wiki must be factual, but style and input should be allowed to evolve, and early disagreements on all things wiki can usually be resolved with a quick discussion (verbal collaboration) with the other people on the best way to present the information.
In one sense, it is counter-intuitive to say this about a wide open collaborative environment such as a wiki; but as a wiki grows, it is important to have someone ultimately responsible for the content. It's vital that this person be the type of individual who can cultivate and motivate contribution, while "organizing the content, weeding out redundant or inaccurate information, and facilitating collaboration on new topics."
And whether this is empirical or opinion, Lena Trudeau - Program Area Director of Strategic Initiatives at the National Academy of Public Administration - states that in a wiki environment, there will be 1% who contribute most of the content, 9% that are sometime-contributors, and 90% lurkers - those who just use, read and watch the wiki.
Wikis are great tools, but from experience the planning and early execution are critical for success.
very nice blog
Posted by: shekhar | June 26, 2011 at 04:56 AM