Some notes on Wiki introduction and adoption
The last 6 months I have had the opportunity to gain real live experience on introducing a wiki behind the firewall. For our pilot we are using MediaWiki as the wiki software.
I would like to share some preliminary notes on lessons learned and issues involved:
- Why a wiki?: Make it absolutely clear what “problem(s)” you are going to solve by introducing a wiki.
- Get management support: As the use of a wiki could have strong implications for the work process and internal communication strategies, eventually management decisions may be required.
- Train, train, train people: Not for hours, but an initial how-to should be provided. It is very easy to overestimate the ability of people to start with a new type of computer application, especially if your are a computer wizard yourself.
- Provide examples: Show a number of good examples in the wiki to convince people what it could mean for them.
- Security: Being behind a firewall does not mean zero risk, especially within a larger organisation.
- Discipline: As always, getting things done within a certain timeframe requires some level of discipline. Wiki’s do not provide discipline!
This list is certainly not finished, nor perfect! It will grow over time, because the pilot is not finished. The list will also become a bit more structured along the way, as I increase my understanding of this, actually, quite complicated introduction and adoption process.
In the near future, I intend to do some more reporting here, so readers can learn from it and avoid some common pitfalls.
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posted Jan 7, 10:00 PM on Jan 07, 2006 |
category: Wiki
/ Computer applications