Wikis, Blogs and RSS For Operational Communications Darlene Fichter University of Saskatchewan OLA Super Conference February 3, 2006

Darlene Fichter

Overview  Internal collaboration & communication  Wikis and weblogs and RSS –How do they work –What are some of the benefits –What to use when

Questions  What is your primary role at your organization?  Reference/Instructional Librarian  Library ITS (web developer, systems librarian)  Library manager  Other  Are you interested in using weblogs/wikis and RSS for:  Business processes  Personal web publishing  Community building  Intranet  Don’t know  Do you blog, read weblogs or contribute to a wiki?  Does your organization use blogs, wikis or RSS?

Poll: Committees and Teams  How many groups do you belong to?  None  one to two  three to five  More than 5  How do you share information? – –Mailing list –Shared file server –BBS –IM  What are some of the limitations?

What if …  Reduce overload  Have an archive of the work done to date  Build a knowledge base auto-magically  Have an easy way to write reports, documents, policies, and procedures together

Technologies Enabling Online Collaboration  Dozens: –Discussion forums – –Instant messaging –Newsgroups –Webcasts –Web conferencing – Weblogs –Team rooms –Text messaging/wireless – RSS – Wiki –Expertise location –FOAF

Zoom In  Weblogs  Wikis  RSS

What is a Weblog? Blog/ Weblog is web site with pages:  Containing brief entries arranged chronologically  Can be a diary, a ‘What’s New’ page or comments / links to other web sites “To me, the blog concept is about three things: Frequency, Brevity, and Personality.” Evan Williams (creator of Blogger)

Posts Daily Archive Search Links/blogroll Category Archive Monthly Archive Feeds

Blog Post

Weblogs Meet Two Primary Needs Informing Interacting Questions and comments Publishing and syndicating

 Excellent at one-to-many communication  Can allow participation and comments  Break down the silos  Create “connected content” Weblogs Can Create New Relationships

Why are Weblogs Adopted So Quickly  Simple way for employees to share ideas  Flexible  A good match between the “need” and the “knowledge worker”

Primary Uses of Internal Weblogs  Knowledge-sharing (63%)  Internal communications (44%)  Project management (30%)  Personal knowledge management (23%)  Event logging (23%)  Team management (20%)  Personal knowledge management (23%) Blogging in the Enterprise: Executive Summary from the Guidewire Group Market Cycle Survey - October 2005

Key Benefits  Improved internal communications (77%)  Replacement of other existing work processes (41%)  Replacement of (39%) Blogging in the Enterprise: Executive Summary from the Guidewire Group Market Cycle Survey - October 2005

Internal communications  Admin News, Personnel News, Staff news, etc blogwithoutalibrary -

Basic Blogger — Reader Interaction Blog it Read it Comment Read via a newsreader

What is RSS? “When people ask me what RSS is, I say it's automated web surfing. We took something lots of people do, visiting sites looking for new stuff, and automated it. It's a very predictable thing, that's what computers do -- automate repetitive things.” Dave Winer Really Simple Syndication Blog Automated Web Surfing

One Click to Rule Them All Yahoo Search New IT Books BBC Data Ref BlogRef Desk Blog NYT IT StatusLoansTrialsStaffEvents RSS News Readers / Aggregators

Newsreader – Lots of Choices

Feeds

What if …you don’t want an RSS reader  Many tools that support RSS to notification –Rmail –Bloglet - –Bot a Blog - –Squeet -

What if … you don’t want or RSS  Personal “RSS” newspaper –Superglu  Build a web page with feeds in columns

Small Team Blog – Data Library Software: Movable Type

Data Library  6 people  One works off site

Data Blog  Build a knowledge base collaboratively –Frequently asked questions –Best practices –Login information for external services  Current updates –Track status and issues with data files

Movable Type Software Features  Multiple authors  Multiple blogs  Create categories  Simple to use (very little training)  Built-in search engine  Archives by month

Blog Statistics  Launched March 2004  521 posts in 18 months  Very few comments

User Acceptance and Adoption  Everyone has posted  Three people are the most active and post often  Is used as a “reference” and not read daily by most staff  notifications are used for “alerts” on any urgent posts Build off adoption.

Weblog Exercise Brainstorm a few ways weblogs might be used in your organization? Identify how weblogs would be better than the existing approach. Identify obstacles / resistance to using weblogs inside the firewall.

Weblog Roadmap*: Project Approach Now  Identify a need and find a supporter (buy-in)  Start with a simple system  Pilot it  Make sure users understand the basics  Create employee blogging guidelines especially if the blogs are public Expanded and Adapted from John Robb, Userland SoftwareUserland Software

Weblog Roadmap Near Term  Get ‘em publishing about what they’re working on (projects, database trials, marketing plans)  Help them to start "subscribing" to each other and to news sources  Begin to build / encourage "team blogs" around key topics / areas

Wiki

What is a “Wiki”?  Web application invented by Ward Cunningham in 1994 that allows anyone to add content and anyone to edit it. “It’s a tool for collaboration, really, we don’t know quite what it is but it’s a fun way of communicating asynchronously across the network”.  Wiki means “quick” in Hawaiian

Wiki’s Characteristics  Intended to be simple so you can focus on the writing, not the mechanics and syntax  No HTML know-how required

Wikis: Collections of Pages Main Page Contact UsElectronic Virtual edit  Wiki pages look like web pages  Anyone with a web browser can read a wiki site Illustrations adapted from Guillaume du Gardier. What is a wiki? June 2, 2005

Click, Write and Save edit save...KMWorld 2005 …KMWorld 2005  Anyone with a web browser can edit a wiki site  Anyone can undo any change at any time

 Make a new page by typing the name in CamelCase, aka WikiName Creating New Pages Title … NewName … edit NewName  Click on any WikiName to see pages that link to it

Wiki Design Principles  Openness and trust –if a page is incomplete or inaccurate anyone can edit it  Incremental –pages can cite other pages, even those not yet written  Observable –you can see the changes being made  Organic –site structure is up to everyone, and it will evolve and change  More principles… Wiki Design Principles

Wiki Examples: Wikipedia

Wikipedia: Recent Changes

Time Lapse – London Bombing

Wikipedia: Viewing History

Wikipedia: Talk Page

Wiki Gardeners  Person who goes around tidying up the wiki, pruning, editing, organizing, and cleaning up  Usually liked and respected On a library wiki, you might want to assign this role.

External Library Wiki: Subject Guides

Tour: Library Wikis  Internal uses –Staff Intranet –Projects –Event planning –IT documentation –Helpdesk – reference / library ITS

Library Intranet

Library Intranet

Project/Committee

Internal Wikis in Libraries  Collaborative writing (projects, teams developing procedures, policies, plans)  Meeting notes and reports  Shared knowledge repository

Simple Case Study: Event Planning Hosted Wiki: Jotspot

WYSIWYG Editor

What Pages Have Changed?

See What Changed

Single Page or Side by Side

Wiki (Jotspot) Anatomy: Features Attach a File Import Word s Send an Make a comment Invite users Changes via RSS Search

Event Planning and Support (Password protected)

Wiki Reactions  Well, I wasn't sure about that wiki (sounded like something from Star Wars), but I decided to try it out. It is fabulous! Every conference should have one. Gail Curry, UNBC

Conference / Wiki Support  Participants signed up for wifi, dine-arounds, connected with each other before the event  Shared notes during the presentation and uploaded slides  Evaluation of the workshop

Wiki Roadmap*  Install wiki software on web server  Plan rollout and content  Build the initial structure  Populate initial content with early adopters  Initial rollout with smaller group  Train and coach users  Do not underestimate inertia and time *Peter Theony, Wiki Based Collaboration  Build the initial structure

Practical Tips  Have a champion –New way of “thinking”, paradigm shift from Intranet / webmaster or CMS (content management system)  Choose the right features: –Attach files –Access control –Version control –Ease of use: make sure “add a page” is self evident –Match look and feel –Alert and post via to wiki

Tools to Help You Choose  Wiki Matrix –  Emma Tonkin’s charts in –Making the Case for a Wiki. Ariadne, January

Weblogs and Wikis Face Off Photo Credit: Pascal Vuylsteker CC Attribution 2.5Pascal Vuylsteker

WikisWeblogs  Group voice  Unstructured, organic  Anyone edits  Fluid medium: change any time  Better management: versions, rollback and change log, syndicate changes  Less familiar  Individual voice  Default is by date, reverse chronological  Anyone comments  Post medium like (comment, reply, comment, …)  Edits aren’t tracked usually, new items are syndicated  More familiar

Wiki Exercise Look back at your ideas for weblogs – would some work better as wikis? Which ones? Identify 2 or 3 areas where a wiki web would help with collaboration and communication. Identify the “biggest obstacles” and how you might overcome them.

Wiki Summary  Wikis help support collaboration  Tools are simple, quick and inexpensive  They belong in our collaboration toolbox  Our workplaces are diverse –Diverse users –Diverse needs –Diverse software choices

Wiki Brainstorm Think about collaborative/team activities in your organization and library. Identify 2 or 3 areas where a wiki web would help with collaboration. Identify the “biggest obstacles” and how you might overcome them.

More Resources  Ten Guidelines for Developing Your Internal Blog – Michael Stephens –  List of Blogs for Internal Communications – Amanda Etches-Johnson –  Wiki Resources –

Questions

 Flexibility of the blog format –Long and short items –Categorize content –Granular (comment at the post level) –Handle unstructured nature of CI content –Post to 2 different blogs by applying 2 labels –Restrict some blogs to particular users Why Weblog/Wiki and Not a CMS?

Weblog Roadmap Long Term  Build an overall community system for the weblogs (aggregate feeds, new posts, search).  Write up the results and start to sell the concept.  Next, begin to experiment with ways to slice and dice the knowledge that is being generated.  advanced search engines and directories  aggregate RSS streams  alerts  social software analysis