Resolutions for 2009

Below are a list of actions I’m really hoping I get around to completing next year:

1) Write and blog more – I set this blog up a few months ago, but haven’t got around to blogging on a regular basis. I have managed a few blog posts on SAP’s Developer Network, but I really want to blog on a consistent basis here. I want to blog more on Enterprise 2.0 activities and community development and organisation.

2) Get more involved with Gov 2.0 – I have been incredibly impressed with the work of the Sunlight foundation in the US. Also, the inititives Tom Watson MP has been promoting, such as the UK Government barcamp and the Show Us a Better Way competition have been very impressive in highlighting the use of new tools by Government departments. I will hopefully be attending the Government barcamp in January and really want to write more about this new dynamic that will change how citizens interact with Government.

3) Migrate blog to my own domain – I really want to migrate from wordpress.com to my own domain. I’m intending to do this – I’ve heard it’s very easy with services such as bluehost – early in the new year.

4) Go to Conferences – Over the past year I’ve watched with envy many fantastic presentations from conferences and events such as Enterprise 2.0 in Boston, Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco and New York, Office 2.0 in San Francisco and Le Web in Paris. There is great opportunities to follow the events at these conferences using Twitter and to even watch videos of presetations, but you miss the social networking opportunities if you’re not there in person.

5) Go to a Barcamp – I’ve never been to a barcamp event before. I’ve followed many of them on Twitter, and should get the chance to attend the UK Government event in January.

My other plans are to continue using Twitter and interacting in areas of Enterprise 2.0 e.g. Blogs, wikis, communities etc.

 

2 most popular wiki questions

Today I was speaking on the phone to a HR manager (not for the company I work for) and talking about wikis. After speaking about using them for perhaps 5 minutes, I was asked the questions one of the – if no the number 1 – most popular wiki question:

1). What’s a wiki?

I tried to answer that it’s an editable webpage that anyone can change and updated. I then elaborated on this with the example of wikipedia. She then asked what I guess is the second most popular wiki question

2). What happens if people put the “wrong” information up?

This was coming for the perspective of someone working in HR. I guess when she said “wrong” she ment inaccurate information although I’m not sure. I explained how wikis rely on the concept of the wisdom of crowds and how it is up to the community to monitor the content on wikis. Also, within enterprise environments users are usually logged in using LDAP mechanisms which means there is no anonymous editing allowed.

In the end the HR person said ‘oh, we have an intranet so we probably wouldn’t use it’. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the time to explain all the benefits and accepted this remark. The company – one of the big 4 – does have a global wiki installed, but it goes to show it benefits and opportunities haven’t reached their HR department yet. This is a pity as the HR department in any organisation can use wikis to help with collaboration and knowledge sharing. The benefits of wikis need to be explained and shown though in real life scenarios before adoption can flourish.

Wiki adoption and case studies

There is lots of resources available on how to grow wiki adoption. Some of my favourite include:

• 21 days of wiki adoption by Steward Mader
• Case study of a wiki changing an Enterprise
• Allen & Overy case study
• Deloitte case study
• Dresdner Kleinwort case study

In order to gain adoption it’s often necessary to explain case studies of other companies using wikis. The is lots of other information at http://community.e2conf.com/index.jspa and on various vendor sites. Hopefully, my next conversation with this HR individual will allow me to explain more of the benefits and possibilities available with using wikis.

 

KM is dead

Really interesting blog post on the death of the concept of “Knowledge Management”. The interview by Patrick Lambe with Dave Snowden and Larry Prusak gives a great overview of the ‘fad’ of KM and why it should now be considered ‘dead’. It is gradually being replaced by the concept of social computing and social productivity software e.g. wikis, blogs, social networking etc.