The Chief Surveyor-General presents: Wiki Style Documentation A striving for panoptic documentation

What is documentation? Define why we do things Define how we do things Define when we do things Define where we do things Define what we need to do to do things Documents answer questions

What is documentation at an SG’s Office? SG is an animal of law All documentation needs to thread back to law It is a public document

Documentation at the SG Act, Regulations, Ordinances Manuals of procedure Circulars “Random Notes” As well as random notes Personal notes

Alternative forms of documentation Spoken word Individual notes Formal notes Digital documents (eg Word document) Digital manuals (eg software help systems) Web pages Wiki

What is knowledge management? the explicit and systematic management of vital knowledge - and its associated processes of creation, organization, diffusion, use and exploitation - in pursuit of business objectives "If only HP knew what it knows it would make three times more profit tomorrow" - Lew Platt, ex CEO Hewlett Packard

Why is knowledge management important Increased content Shorter development times Facilitates innovation Manage intellectual capital (eg retirees) Increased networking Holistic view of organisation Help solve wicked problems Specific, but not exclusive, to Rural Development: –High staff turn over –High cost of training

The wicked problem

What is a wiki Wiki means “fast” in Hawaiian Developed by an American, Ward Cunningham during Everybody knows Wikipedia or WikiLeaks? Website based Anybody can create and edit Any number of interlinked web pages Via a web browser

Dokuwiki Used for pilot study Freeware Written in PHP Seemed simple enough to get setup Aimed at documentation

The envisioned SG Wiki In the beginning…

Start capturing the current documentation

Make atomic from the start

Let more senior staff use and add to or amend

Documentation team Ratifies what has been amended In consultation if necessary (as per previous example) Informal discussions, ad hoc meetings to feed info to them –Eg PLS tea time discussions A team per SG office Instead of a team, maybe a librarian

Staff to start using Wiki For example the diagram examination section

The envisioned SG Wiki Start sharing… Advertise to interested parties The land surveyor The conveyancer The academics Allow them to create and edit too

And those damn circulars? Introducing RSS feeds

A “New” Datastructure How may this apply to GIS –GIS procedure –GIS operators notes –List of useful SQL statements –Etc Something different –What about data presentation

Our GIS Currently

With some attributes

But what if we got this

List of pro’s (cons not yet considered) Free-ish Neat Accessible Easily added to other applications Free General skill level Collaboration