Wikis in Corporate Knowledge Management 1Dr. M. Michelson

Wikis in Corporate Knowledge Management:Requirements and Structuring Options

Wikis in Corporate Knowledge Management:Requirements and Structuring Options

Dr. Martin MichelsonHochschule Darmstadt

University of Applied Sciences Darmstadt

Wikis in Corporate Knowledge Management 2Dr. M. Michelson

Knowledge Management

“Data and information may be managed, and information resources may be managed, but knowledge (what we know) can never be managed, except by the individual knower, and even then, only imperfectly.” ”(Wilson, T.D.: The nonsense of knowledge management. In: Information Research, 8, 2002)

“Traditionell approaches have tended to see information and knowledge as something existing independent of the user, which can be accessed, stored, classified and managed by reference to its objective characteristics. ” (Tredinnick, L.: Web 2.0 and Business: A pointer to the intranets of the future? In: Business Information Review 23, 2006)

“In the business world, it is a common dictum that ‘if you cannot document it, you cannot manage it. Documentation of knowledge is crucial to managing knowledge.[…] It becomes obvious that it is extremely important to manage those assets.” (Powell, T.: The knowledge Matrix: A proposed Taxonomy for Enterprise Knowledge, 2007)

Wikis in Corporate Knowledge Management 3Dr. M. Michelson

Wikis

What is a wiki?

“A free expandable collection of interlinked web pages, a hypertext system for storing and modifying information, easily editable”(Leuf/Cunningham 2001: The wiki way, 2001)

“A page or collection of Web pages designed to enable anyone who accesses it to contribute or modify content, using a simplified markup language. Wikis are often used to create colaborative websites and to power community websites. Wikis are used in business to provide intranets and Knowledge Management systems ” (wikipedia.org)

Wikis in Corporate Knowledge Management 4Dr. M. Michelson

Wikipedia

Wikis in Corporate Knowledge Management 5Dr. M. Michelson

Wikipedia - Structure

Wikis in Corporate Knowledge Management 6Dr. M. Michelson

Wikipedia - Structure

Wikis in Corporate Knowledge Management 7Dr. M. Michelson

Corporate knowledge management: Traditional approach

Defined concept of knowledge distribution and sharing

Central administration

Central quality control

Top - down

Defined metadata

Responsable authors of articles

Static documents

Low interaction

Low contribution

Wikis in Corporate Knowledge Management 8Dr. M. Michelson

Corporate knowledge management: Social Media based approach

Concept of knowledge sharing as social process

User generated content

User driven quality control

User build metadata (Folksonomy)

Common authorship

Dynamic documents

Interaction

Contribution of many (?)

Wikis in Corporate Knowledge Management 9Dr. M. Michelson

Corporate Wikis

Wikis in Corporate Knowledge Management 10Dr. M. Michelson

Corporate Wikis: Areas of application

Knowledge tool: Publish own knowledge disclosure of tacit knowledge

Documentation tool: Creating, editing, organizing and storage of all kinds of documents which could be of interest to one or several users (descriptions, reports, projects, e-mails)

Finding contacts: Overview on experts inside and outside the enterprise / making contacts

Discussion Forum

Reduction of distributing files via e-mail

Wikis in Corporate Knowledge Management 11Dr. M. Michelson

Corporate Wikis: Main differences to public wikis

No encyclopedia idea

Defined structure

Handling is obliged to clear rules and bound to closed user-group

Users, authors, editors are not anonymous

Users have different accession rights

Wikis in Corporate Knowledge Management 12Dr. M. Michelson

Corporate Wikis: Requirements

Knowledge sharing culture

Support by the management

Editorial unit which prepares the basis of documents: Documentation, guidelines, glossaries, product descriptions, manuals, collections of best practices, protocols and job descriptions

Consistent development in direction of a knowledge sharing forum for the employees

Incentives promote the willingness to participate actively

The wiki has pioneers and ambassadors