The Practical Application of Blogs and Wikis: The ISN Case Study Jonathan Landau INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND SECURITY NETWORK Managing information, sharing knowledge

Introduction Why examine blogs and wikis? Why implement them? IT tools come and go What is the significance for the IR community? Because blogs and wikis are not simply IT tools They are a manifestation of a broader change with profound ramifications for our work What kind of changes are we talking about?

“The companies that design their software, their systems, their Web sites... to encourage participation will be the ones that draw the most users“ “As the tools for individual uploading and collaboration become more diffused... every big institution or hierarchical structure will feel the effects.“ Thomas L. Friedman The World Is Flat

“The companies that design their software, their systems, their Web sites... to encourage participation will be the ones that draw the most users“ “As the tools for individual uploading and collaboration become more diffused... every big institution or hierarchical structure will feel the effects.“ Thomas L. Friedman The World Is Flat

Participation and Collaboration Blogs, wikis, and other tools are signs of a broad shift towards: Individual empowerment More - and more effective - collaboration Increased two-way communication and user participation Online information management is no longer a one-way street, as individuals are increasingly Authoring their own content (blogs) Collaborating on that content (wikis) Distrubuting content on their own Information gathering and dissemination not anymore top-down; it’s bottom-up and “globally side-to-side” (Friedman)

Blogs, Wikis and the IR community This is impacting the work we do... Inside organizations Relations with partners and users... our role as information providers... Notion of experts handing down information challenged Wikipedia demonstrates the possibilities (and limitations?) of collective expertise...and the IR community as a whole Political blogs challenging traditional journalistic outlets Wikis in classrooms and universities for collective learning Academics and politicians jumping on blogging bandwagon Effects of 21st Century communication on int’l relations

Blogs and Wikis Blogging software Simple-to-use platform for any individual to publish his/her thoughts, ideas, opinions, recipes, jokes, etc Wiki websites Easily edit (add, remove, change) any content on Wiki websites, often without need for registration Effective tools for collaborative authoring

Blogging at the ISN Internal blog (in development) Communication between ISN teams and team members (three buildings with staff working in various fields) Announcements of all kind - replacing tiresome CCs and forwards Feedback for new services; internal development External blog

Why an ISN Blog? Provide an additional tool to promote the ISN, its mission, and its areas of expertise Communicate our activities; comment on key debates; show who’s behind the ISN and the many things they know Improve two-way communication with ISN users & partners Survey users on new and upcoming services Discuss key issues as well as projects with partners Strengthen the ‘N’ in ISN The ISN as a network: promote partners, endorse initiatives Examine and discuss research areas of interest to the ISN The impact of IT on IR, knowledge sharing & management, network building, etc

ISN Blog: Challenges Initial response of some ISN staff cautious to negative Questioned value of blogging for ISN; no need/demand for ISN Blog Management concern about informal nature of blogs, lack of editorial control Most posts by same group of people Confusion over what should/can/cannot be posted Inhibition to post - some people just too shy! People can’t and shouldn’t be forced to post Few comments so far

ISN Blog: Achievements Success in convincing many staff members of blog idea Incorporated them in development of ISN Blog Middle management understands potential of ISN Blog Number of visitors steadily growing Many subscribe via RSS Many referred by other blogs we have interlinked with Fears of inappropriate posting have not materialized On the contrary: Many interesting posts on various subjects Only in existence for two months! More and more staff members asking for blog login Blogs take time to find their user base

WikISN: Internal Editorial Board Wiki Minutes, contact details, decisions taken (for future reference) Suggestions for dossiers, case studies and new partners Anyone can make, add to others’ suggestions Intranet replacement Resource sharing (possibly in conjunction with internal blog) Collaborative editing Preparation of documents E.g. vision paper, meeting minutes Customer management tool Free, easy to edit, accessible to anyone from any team

WikISN: External Dossiers Collections of regional and topical information drawn from ISN’s various online services Wikis allow for simple yet powerful interaction with users and experts Easy to update whenever necessary (news, new publications and links, etc) Changes easily traceable and reversible Organic rather than static texts IR Portal (Wikipedia) Develop and expand an IR portal on Wikipedia Mirror on ISN website to position the ISN as the primary source for IR information

Image 2: Wiki Dossier

WikISN: Issues Scepticism towards wiki idea Many unfamiliar with this kind of decentralized collaboration - who is in charge? Examples of vandalized articles on Wikipedia Especially in academia, aversion towards making content (e.g. dossiers) freely editable Wiki software includes features to deal with problems Can allow for strong permission schemes Changes can always be reversed, traced to author; indeed, wikis enable ultimate accountability Must allow time for model of shared control to be adopted

Conclusion Participation, collaboration, individual uploading - key concepts that are transforming our area of work This is true both within our organizations as well as for what we offer our users We must closely follow and adapt to these developments

Questions? Any questions? THANK YOU! Jonathan Landau, ISN Editor