Application of wikis

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1 How are wikis being used to support networks?
2 When would you use a wiki?
3 What are common wiki roles?
4 Case study
5 Training Exercise
6 Useful links/Resources

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How are wikis being used to support networks?

Wikis as Project management tools
Used as knowledge bases
Documentation repositories

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When would you use a wiki?

There are quite many ways in which we may intend to use a wiki. A wiki can be used when;

Planning for an event or meeting
Documenting meeting proceedings
Developing project proposals
Documenting research findings
Writing a report after accomplishment of any activity
Gathering materials for a research initiative ( One will be looking for suggestions or followups on exisiting ideas)
Writing books/novels
Developing teaching materials for educational purposes
Draft and revise an important email before it is sent
Review and edit a business letter with a colleague

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What are common wiki roles?

The administrator: The administrator is usually the person who has created the wiki. S/he is the one who can manage the settings for the wiki.

If the wiki is limited in some way, either in the editing or viewing or both, the administrator will have to manage the users who have access to editing or viewing the wiki.

The Wiki Gardener: This is usually assigned to asigned to someone in the group, and this role is the Wiki Gardener.

When different people are writing in a single wiki together, they often use different text formatting styles or organize their content according to a different logic.

Getting all the text coordinated together, following a similar logic,and formatted in a similar fashion, is recommended to increase the ease of reading and understanding the text. This is the responsibility of the Wiki Gardener.

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Case study

In order to illustrate to you how wikis are being used world-wide, we have interviewed four great wiki garderners from APC, Bellanet International and Full Circle Associates who have shared with us their experiences in using wikis. Have a look at what they have to share;

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Canadian Experience 1

Name: Frédéric Dubois

Organization: Association for Progressive Communications (APC)

Contact: frederic At apc.org

Question: When was your first interaction with wikis?

Answer: 5 years back, 2002.

Question: What attributes would you consider for a successful wiki?

Answer:

Easy to update (access, language, formatting), easy to organise and manage (pages just loosely associated, no hard structures of hierarchies), easy to work on simultaneously (collaborative feature), fast, can manage different languages, accepts attachments.

Question: How are you using wikis in your organization?

For documenting projects (collective memory)
For planning (strategies, events, reference documents)
For evaluating projects (grids and simple forms set up to evaluate aspects of projects)
To track the evolution of a project/document...
To exchange files in a clear, organised and transparent manner (not like an email inbox)

Question: What challenges do you face when using wikis?

Answer:

Forget password
Loose information because time allowed to update a page is set to too fast
TikiWiki codes and computing languages for formatting not straight-forward
Makes long lists because not hierarchical
When updating a wiki page and connectivity is not the best, you risk loosing info. Always write-up in a text document and only update when finished

Question: How do you deal with these challenges?

Work collaboratively so passwords can be retrieved. Also keep a copy of the password close.
I keep formatting to a minimal
I try to set up pages that are comprehensive and include some short descriptions instead of just lists of titles and subtitles with tones of attachments.

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European Experience

Name: Anna Feldman

Organization: Association for Progressive Communications (APC)

Contact:: anna At gn.apc.org

Question: When was your first interaction with wikis?

Answer: 2003

Question: What attributes would you consider for a successful wiki?

Simple and obvious to navigate pages
simple to edit
simple to capture and convert pages into word processable files.
as few extra features as possible - i.e. wiki only, no instant messaging, blogging, alternatve formats etc..
Accessible design (graphically and technically)

Question: How are you using wikis in your organization?

Answer

We use wikis for system documentation, meeting planning, meeting documentation, workshop documentation, collaborative proposal writing, document storage

Question: What challenges do you face when using wikis?

It can be complicated to implement different levels of access for different pages on a wiki.
I have yet to come up with a good way of deciding when it is time to create a new wiki and when I should simply create a new section on the existing wiki.
It can take a while to get newbies comfortable with the wiki way of working
Spam on open wiki pages is increasingly becoming a problem
Different wiki syntaxes for different types of wikis is a bit irritating

Question: How do you deal with these challenges?

I am encouraging my colleagues to move away from tikiwiki and standardise our work more with MediaWiki, as a way of solving permissions problems and having to manage many different wiki syntaxes

In terms of encouraging newbies to use wikis, there are nice tasks like creating personal pages, which can be good ways to pull them in and get them using the space. I also try and post content on wiki pages and only send the links by email, to encourage people to use the space.

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Canadain Experience 2

Name: Sarah Kerr

Organization: International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Bellanet

Contact: skerr AT bellanet.org

Question: When was your first interaction with wikis?

Answer: early 2004

Question: What attributes would you consider for a successful wiki?

Answer

As with any ICT, a wiki needs a clear purpose and is seen as a useful tool which positively supports a process.
An understanding of the wiki concept and a sensitization to the wiki (participatory) culture. There needs to be general acceptance that whatever is put in a wiki may be altered by another person. The general understanding that the work of many on a document only improves it.
On a practical level:
- At least one person assigned as a wiki gardener, to keep the wiki clean and tidy.
- At least one person willing who is open to being contacted to support new wiki users.
- In the case that the wiki is new to the group of users, a wiki champion to clearly articulate the wiki concept to users who tend to be more "ICT-phobic".

Question: How are you using wikis in your organization?

Answer

Bellanet@IDRC uses wikis for almost every purpose. In our wikis, we store general un-structured (and sometimes structured) information. This includes project planning notes, task lists, timelines, general meeting notes, brainstorming, information tracking, etc.

Question: What challenges do you face when using wikis?

Answer

General challenges include:

Evolving habits related to editing documents and organising information: Before wikis were introduced to my colleagues, using email to collaborate on document writing and using "track changes" features in MS Word were the tools they used. Although these are valid methods, they may not be the most effective in many circumstances.
Understanding what a wiki is and what it can do: Those who are new to wikis do not grasp the simplicity of the tool and are confused by the concept. Also, the name 'wiki' tends to cause confusion.
Wiki syntax and UI: Wiki formatting syntax as well as UIs are inconsistent across wiki platforms.

Question: How do you deal with these challenges?

Answer

Evolving habits related to editing documents and organising information: I have played the role of a wiki champion within the group or organisation to 'lead by example' and provide suggestions here and there on how processes can be improved. Someone needs to clearly articulate what part of the process can be improved through the use of the wiki. Without this common understanding, there will not be buy-in to use the wiki.
Understanding what a wiki is and what it can do: This challenge can additionally be surmounted through the use of a wiki champion.
Wiki syntax and UI: Encouraging the use of the WYSIWYG editing interface which is available on most wikis is a start, but also using a wiki platform which is common/popular also helps. It is my hope that a standard wiki editing syntax will be adopted across wiki platforms.

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US Experience

Name: Nancy White

Organisation: Full Circle Associates

Email: NancyW at Fullcirc dot com

Question: When was your first interaction with a wiki?

Answer:

Oh dear, it is hard to remember back to my first wiki experience. I know that I dug in deeply around 2002, but I was familiar with and using them as far back as 1999, when I posted about them on the online facilitation list. One of my colleagues, Denham Grey, was the person who I think introduced me to wikis. He has done amazing work on his own knowledge repository wiki http://kmwiki.wikispaces.com/

Question: What attributes would you consider for a successful wiki?

Answer:

I think there are three parts to this answer: the purpose, the practices and the software.

Purpose: A wiki project is successful when people know what they are trying to do together. If the purpose is clear and reflects the group's motivation, it has a greater chance of success. This does not necessarily mean YOU tell ME what YOU want ME to do. The negotiation is more about "WE!" Once that is clear, there are may ways to make it happen. You add a good dash of motivation and the practices.

Practices: Some of the key practices are simple agreements on how people want to work together, who "gardens" the wiki and keeps it just tidy enough, how the wiki is organized as it grows and the comfort and trust the group has to co-create. Relationships! Also, there are power issues. Sometimes it is hard to let go of our issues of control... ;-) Wikis are about trust and the intelligence of the group. So don't do a wiki if you don't plan to trust people!

Software: newer wikis are easier for second wave adopters, where you don't need to know special practices (like CamelCase) - this ease of use is really important to wider adoption and successful proejcts

Question: What challenges do you face when using wikis?

Answer:

People's time and attention is so stretched, it can be hard to move a project forward.
Unclear expectations
Control issues
Sprawling and disorganization over time
Style issues (some people just don't like the emergent nature of wikis!)

Question: How do you deal these challenges?

Answer:

Smile, see the attributes above. A simple path to this is for groups to think about what they want to do and craft a FEW agreements about how before they get started. This is for project based wikis. For open-to-the world wikis... well, that's a whole other story!

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The Asian Experience

Name: Shikha Shrestha

Organisation; BellaSAP

Contact: Shikha Shrestha

Question: When was your first interaction with wikis?

Answer:

It is very hard to remember when I first used wikis. It is Bellanet network that introduced me to this new concept of wiki around 2005. It was Sarah who was very much eager to teach us different components in wiki. She helped me showing all the ways for editing and preparing table of content while I was visiting Canada.

'Question: How are wikis used in your organisation?

Answer:

We use wikis for various purposes like organizational management, program management as well as event management.

In case of organizational management, we are using wikis for drafting organizational policies and manual that are directly related to staff. Recently we had experience of revising our Financial Manual of SAP I using a wiki which has helped gathering major concerns of staff in the policy. The platform can also be used for restoring restricted documents of organizations like meeting minutes (board meeting and staff). We have also used this platform for developing Annual Report so that all the members of the organization will have access to edit the document and give the shape they wanted to.

Wiki has helped in promoting participatory planning in case of program management. If we take the example of Bellanet scattered in different regional presences, this platform has helped in developing common consensus on our future directions. We had used this platform for developing prospectus of Bellanet. Besides, we can also use this platform for developing new program proposals. In the mean time, we also created different wiki pages for each section of our action. This has also helped in creating a common pool of programmatic resources in a single platform that is accessible to all relevant stakeholders.

This online platform has helped in managing events like Asia Commons where there were planning team members from Canada, India and Nepal sharing different time zones. We used to have regular meetings and also consensus to work further on the wiki. Then each and every team member would provide their input and finalize the plan. In case of events, wiki are being extensively used for documenting outcomes of the event. It was indeed a great thrill to have your report ready at the end of your event using wiki that too with support of all interested participants and resource persons. It lowered down the burden of organizers in documenting all the finding by ourselves.

Question:' What attributes would you give for a successful wiki?

Answer:

I feel that there should be internalization of belief that wiki can bring a positive change. There should be substantive proofs to show that wiki has been extensively used by different and individual for creating a document in collaborative manner. There should also be trust that documents stored in wiki are secure and we are not losing the document when we need them. Besides, the trust over wiki, there should also be learning attitude for new technological skills.

Question: What challenges do you face in using wikis?

Answer:

The challenge can be analyzed at various level. While starting at personal level, using wiki is very simple if we are just editing words and letters. However, creating table sometimes can be tricky:)

In case of organizational challenges, we felt that it is mostly BellaSAP team here in SAP International who are making good use of wiki for their programmatic purpose. Other team members have restricted use of wiki mainly for the organizational purpose. So, even generating interest of non techie people over using wiki is one of the challenges of using the wiki extensively in the organization.

In some cases, language can also be seen as one of the barriers. We have to be fluent in English for using wiki. We do not have any localized option of wiki for users who are not able to read and write English.

Question: How do you deal with these challenges?

Answer:

In case of preparing tables, you just have to find some old tables, then use trick of copy and paste:)

People feel comfortable with tools with their increased practice. There should be lots of encouragement for people to learn this new tool for documenting. There should be strong support unit in organization for providing guidance and support as and when required.

We are finding ways if we can localize wiki platform in local language so that local users can also make good benefit out of this new emerging tool.

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The African experience

Name: Abubaker Basajjabaka

Organization: Bellanet Africa

Contact: abasajjabaka AT bellanet.org

When was your first interaction with wikis?'

My interaction with wikis was towards the end of 2005 when there was a desire to create online communities especially in the wake of the Harambee Project and also the Bellanet Network that comprises members in North America (Canada), Latin America (Costa Rica), Asia (Nepal) and Africa (Uganda).

How are you using wikis in your organization?

In the work we do for the Harambee Project and the Bellanet Network, wikis are a major tool for:

Planning

Coordination

Information and Knowledge sharing

Wikis have helped us to collectively and collaboratively come up with documents where every member can have an input.

If we’re planning an event such as a workshop, retreat etc, initial thoughts (written) in draft form are started from a wiki then built into a comprehensive document that guides us in managing the event. Because these thoughts are stored in a central place where everybody concerned can access them whenever they want them, members get involved in the whole process.

During events such as workshops, retreat, seminars etc, we use wikis for documentation of proceedings. The most important thing is that everybody in such events has a role to play in capturing thoughts as opposed to having a rapporteur. Because work is split, coming up with a report for example becomes easy. Quite a number documents have been developed this way and this has underlined a move from the conventional way of doing this i.e. using attachments.

In Coordinating the Harambee project, we set up a wiki where we document proceedings of our meetings and actions to be taken by each member. The Harambee Coordination Committee is like the governing and administrative body of the project that discusses how the project should be run. The meetings are done on a weekly basis i.e. every Wednesday. Because our thoughts are captured in the wiki, it is easy to follow up on whatever action. The decisions taken and captured in the wiki also make it easy to track the course of action.

We also use wikis for information and knowledge sharing. We created space for our Focus Networks, the actual implementers of the Harambee Projector, to share their experiences. Each Focus Network has an action plan they are required to fulfill and as a result, they have to report, update and therefore share their experiences in the wiki space provided.

What attributes would you consider for a successful wiki?

User friendly: From a user’s point of view, a wiki should offer ease for documentation. Like some of them are, a wiki should be designed in the same way our ordinary word processors, spreadsheets etc are designed. This way, users may not necessarily be required to spend a lot of time learning how to use them.

What challenges do you face when using wikis?

The major challenge I face does not reside in the technicalities involved in setting them up or even using them. In Africa, the major challenge is to do with the fact that these are online tools that require constant and stable internet connectivity. In Africa and particularly Uganda, connectivity is every unstable and as result, if you’re working online and you finally get disconnected, you’ll lose every information you didn’t save. This is usually frustrating as you have to do it again.

The other challenge is still related to them being online tools. Training offline communities is very difficult. Training in offline situations only helps in creating the awareness of the wiki.

Creating tables in wikis is a very complicated process.

How do you deal with these challenges?

With unreliable connectivity, I’ve always done my documents in a normal word processor like word or open office then done copy and paste in the wiki although at times wikis may not maintain the same formatting these applications have. This means that I have to format the text again.

There is no known shortcut to training offline communities. Reliable connectivity must be found for hands-on.

Copying and pasting already existing tables although might require some adjustments related to the number of columns and rows.

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