(things to think about) before you pick a wiki
DESCRIPTION
Is your company moving documentation to a wiki? What process and policy issues should you consider (preferably) before selecting a wiki for documentation? If the choice of a wiki has already been made for you, learn to manage expectations and produce the best outcome for your situation. Presentation by Janet Swisher at Technical Communication Summit, May 2011TRANSCRIPT
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Policy and Process Considerations for Collaborative
Authoring Environments
Janet SwisherMozilla
Session hashtag: #boring
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(Things to Think About)
Before You Pick a WikiJanet Swisher, @jmswisher
MozillaSession hashtag: #b4wiki
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Baseline assumptions
A wiki is a website that allows the creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor. —Wikipedia
Most wikis are not like Wikipedia
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Why use a wiki?
Internal Workgroup
coordination Knowledge capture Project management Strategic planning
External Customer
knowledgebase Product documentation
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Our scenario
Your organization is considering or has decided to move some customer-facing information (documentation or knowledgebase) to a wiki.
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Photo by kenna takahashi
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A wiki is just a (kind of) CMS Authoring environment Content repository Delivery platform
Ann Rockley, Managing Enterprise Content, p. 312
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10 Questions to ask before startingfrom WIKI: Grow your own for fun and profit, Alan Porter
What business issue will the wiki resolve?
How will you measure success?
What is the expected return on investment?
Where will the content come from?
Who will use the wiki initially?
Who will use the wiki in the future?
Who will own the wiki? Where will the wiki be
hosted? Which wiki should I
use? What controls will I
need?
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Who will contribute?
90%: “lurk” but never contribute
9%: do a little 1%: do a lot
Jakob Nielsen, Participation Inequality: Encouraging More Users to Contribute
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Who will do what?
Roles• Writers• Editors• SMEs• Managers• Partners• Customers
Tasks• Writing• Editing• Reviewing• Updating• Maintaining
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Define the editorial workflow
• Pre-publication review (may be necessary for external wikis)
• Post-publication review (via RSS feeds)• Ad hoc review
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Define the publication workflow
• Default: What happens in the wiki stays in the wiki
Photo by Thierry
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Define the publication workflow
• Wiki as an output format only: DITA2wiki
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Define the publication workflow
• Print output from a wiki – Confluence PDF export– MediaWiki Pdf Export extension
(see wiki.service-now.com for an example)
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Who stands behind it?
IANAL: Consult your attorney for legal advice.
• Warrantied content (read-only)• Unwarrantied content (user-contributed)
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What can we do with users’ content?
IANAL: Consult your attorney for legal advice.
• Grant a license vs. assign copyright• Explicitly stated in terms-of-use• Should be irrevocable
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What can users do with our content?
IANAL: Consult your attorney for legal advice.
• Default: All Rights Reserved• Creative Commons• Other terms
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Thanks!
• Resources I mentioned: http://www.janetswisher.com/?itemid=283
• Email me: [email protected]• Follow me: @jmswisher
• Share your feedback: http://www.surveymonkey.com/stcsummit