7 keys for selecting and managing company Wiki

CG Lynch

Network administration - Wiki seems like a blessing to many users in companies who don't like how to collaborate via email or other traditional collaboration tools.

Indeed, a Wiki - a website that can be edited simultaneously by many users and works on it without any knowledge of HTML code - is now used in some modern companies. Traditionally, working groups often have to share information with each other by email to exchange important documents, create connections between them and then email new documents to the entire group. However, the main disadvantage of this method is that it is not possible to change at the same time and see the changes made by colleagues at the same time.

On the other hand, its advantages, changes to wikis are implemented in real time. wikis also have much more powerful controls, allowing you to switch back to the previous version if the editing is done unintentionally or may be corrupted.

However, choosing a wiki platform is not simple at all. Both new and old firms are providing a lot of wiki platforms but before starting to think about which vendor you need, you need to do your research on your IT field as well as your requirements. user. This opinion was given by Gil Yehuda an analyst at the Forrester Research center. In this article, we will introduce you to 7 steps in choosing a wiki that is suitable for your company, taking into account the technical and user perspective.

Select software distribution model

Most wikis can be distributed to your company in three formats: hypothetical (on-premise) (you install software on computers and manage it), configured (software like a service (SaaS), in which case firms store all data on their server) or as an application, this is a hybrid model between the two models.

According to Yehuda, many larger businesses choose 'on-premise' models for wikis, especially if their field has limited requirements for data types that can be stored outside the company's server system.

The SaaS model may be attractive to some small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) with IT departments with limited resources and cannot take responsibility for managing more servers and software. In addition, SaaS is sometimes approved in large businesses for businesses whose departments are waiting for their IT to provide a wiki or other collaboration technologies.

The third option, the wiki application, is also very popular. This application is a software used to call the "plug and play" component. Or in another way, a company can plug a wiki application into their existing server environment, after making some small settings by the company, the wiki will work and perform its work. , is configured in current server systems.

Yehuda said that the wiki application also addresses two complex issues facing companies that are interested in wikis. One of them is that many companies will not want to encounter the complexity of installing software themselves (how to make a full installation on-premise will not be attractive), but they also have some restrictions for storing external data (SaaS type). Then the application 'helps these companies overcome their problems', by providing 'in-house' storage but still avoids the complicated problems encountered during the installation.

Tracking: Evaluate users

According to Yehuda's report, an important issue in wikis is that it must be integrated with existing authentication environments, which can be single sign-on or LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol). On a company wiki, there can be no anonymity for anyone who compiles it. An enterprise wiki needs to verify the identity of each user so that their edits are useful to other users. Actions on wikis also need to be transparent, clear and investigateable.
Any anof enterprise wiki also needs to have access methods set up. For example, some wikis allow access only at read and written levels by an important group of members, while some are more public, so everyone within the company can change.

Meet the requirements of the IT department

If you have chosen an on-premise model, you choose it because there is a need to set up certain IT terms of data storage and integration with existing enterprise systems. Falling into this case, you need to talk to the IT architects of the business, who can provide you with the real needs of the problem around what will work for the installation. an enterprise wiki.

What should be considered in finding the right wiki? For example, they may have a set of standards or frameworks that they like to use for web applications, so any wiki must be in the required category.

Regardless of architecture, all IT administrators will want a wiki that allows them to analyze how much server space it will consume and test usage. For example, if a certain wiki is well known and starts to have many users coming to it, then they need to make sure that they can provide enough server capacity for the system to work properly.

Plan for having trouble

Like most people using wikis, certain accidents or incidents can happen. For example, most wikis allow users to edit documents at the same time, but due to technical irregularities, when the first person performs a 'save' action, the His editing will be saved while the second user will then be lost.

It is a very specific problem, but Yehuda says you need to ask some other possible problems in the future. Their wiki must check all the changes that appear and there must be a way to switch back to the previous version to find the valuable editor that was lost during the save process. Your users' satisfaction - those that lead to the success or failure of a wiki because it's just a tool that contains collective intelligence - depends on that.

There is really nothing more frustrating than posting content in a wiki and discovering it is lost because someone is editing at the same time.

Managing change (sticking closely)

The key to managing enterprise wiki protocols is good notification tools to allow users to maintain changes made to wiki documents that are of interest to them.

For example, if you work for an advertising agency and are involved in questioning the tar seal, for example, you are the main author for it, in which case you might want to know right away. Immediately after a change appears to the wiki you can enter to check.

According to Forrester's report, there are two main techniques that can be allowed to do so: e-mail and really simple syndication (RSS). Yehuda also emphasized that a wiki can decode between small adjustments and big changes to avoid too many emails.

However, with web 2.0 trends, RSS feeds are the best way to check for updates. Your wiki can inform someone in the feed what pages have been changed recently.

Planning for a successful wiki

Assuming your users prefer wikis, it's important here that wikis must have features that make it highly searchable and easily exploit more and more information over time.

One feature that most wikis need to have is tagging. For example, you can tag a document for 'advertising' or 'active'. However, such typical tags can lead to problems over time as wikis (and its pages) will increase in size. In the statement, 'disciplined wiki page tagging will make these sites easier to find'. Create a set of tags with your team when you start launching the wiki. Some of the tags will be created by users, however they need to provide them with a key principle.

Make sure your wiki has a strong search capability. One of the ways to ensure a strong search is a strong tagging system (the search feature works well and returns the expected results).

Take into account the extended features

You should also take into account the additional features your company offers and how those features positively impact your users.

For example, if you are working in a large company, a wiki that provides multilingual support can help bridge communication between offices in many different languages.

Another feature is the ability to attach documents, this feature can be especially useful if you want to use a wiki as your document management system. Other wiki software also allows you to make a wiki accessible via a widget embedded in a personal website, such as iGoogle.

Access is the most useful for these extended features. Yehuda said, starting with one of the most fastidious users in your group. If you make them feel good, then you can provide the wiki to everyone.

'Do it first with people you think are difficult to hear first, listen to them complain. That will help you find out how to provide a useful wiki for all other users, 'Yehuda advised.