1. Wikis, Blogs and RSS For Operational Communications Darlene Fichter University of Saskatchewan darlene.fichter@usask.ca OLA Super Conference February 3, 2006

2. Darlene Fichter

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

4. 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?

5. 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? –Email –Mailing list –Shared file server –BBS –IM  What are some of the limitations?

6. What if …  Reduce email 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

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

8. Zoom In  Weblogs  Wikis  RSS

9. 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)

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

11. Blog Post

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

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

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

15. 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

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

17. Internal communications  Admin News, Personnel News, Staff news, etc blogwithoutalibrary - http://www.blogwithoutalibrary.net/?page_id=94#internal

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

20. 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 http://www.reallysimplesyndication.com/2005/09/11#a951 http://www.reallysimplesyndication.com/2005/09/11#a951 Automated Web Surfing

21. One Click to Rule Them All Yahoo Search New IT Books BBC Data Ref BlogRef Desk Blog NYT IT StatusLoansTrialsStaffEvents RSS News Readers / Aggregators http://www.coldal.org/clips/3rings.mp3

22. Newsreader – Lots of Choices www.bloglines.com

23. Feeds

24. What if …you don’t want an RSS reader  Many tools that support RSS to email notification –Rmail http://www.r-mail.org/http://www.r-mail.org/ –Bloglet - http://www.bloglet.com/http://www.bloglet.com/ –Bot a Blog - http://www.botablog.com/http://www.botablog.com/ –Squeet - http://squeet.com/http://squeet.com/

25. What if … you don’t want email or RSS  Personal “RSS” newspaper –Superglu  Build a web page with feeds in columns http://dev.morainevalley.edu/lrc/blogs.htm

26. Small Team Blog – Data Library Software: Movable Type

27. Data Library  6 people  One works off site

28. 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

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

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

31. 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  Email notifications are used for “alerts” on any urgent posts Build off email adoption.

32. 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.

33. 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

34. 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

35. Wiki

36. 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

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

38. 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

39. 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

40.  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

41. 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 http://www.c2.com/cgi/wiki?WikiDesignPrinciples

42. Wiki Examples: Wikipedia www.wikipedia.org

43. Wikipedia: Recent Changes

44. Time Lapse – London Bombing http://thelastminute.typepad.com/blog/2005/07/the_day_citizen.html

45. Wikipedia: Viewing History

46. Wikipedia: Talk Page

47. 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.

48. External Library Wiki: Subject Guides http://www.library.ohiou.edu/subjects/bizwiki/index.php/Main_Page

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

50. Library Intranet http://wiki.lib.umn.edu/

51. Library Intranet http://wiki.lib.uconn.edu/wiki/Main_Page

52. Project/Committee http://www.seedwiki.com/wiki/b-team/

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

54. Simple Case Study: Event Planning Hosted Wiki: Jotspot www.jotspot.com

55. WYSIWYG Editor

56. What Pages Have Changed?

57. See What Changed

58. Single Page or Side by Side

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

60. Event Planning and Support http://coppul.jotspot.com (Password protected)

61. 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

62. 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

63. 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 http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Codev/TWikiPresentation17Feb2005  Build the initial structure

64. 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 email to wiki

65. Tools to Help You Choose  Wiki Matrix –http://www.wikimatrix.org/http://www.wikimatrix.org/  Emma Tonkin’s charts in –Making the Case for a Wiki. Ariadne, January 2005 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue42/tonkin/ http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue42/tonkin/

66. Weblogs and Wikis Face Off Photo Credit: Pascal Vuylsteker http://www.flickr.com/photos/pvk/ CC Attribution 2.5Pascal Vuylsteker

67. 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 email (comment, reply, comment, …)  Edits aren’t tracked usually, new items are syndicated  More familiar

68. 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.

69. 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

70. 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.

71. More Resources  Ten Guidelines for Developing Your Internal Blog – Michael Stephens –http://www.tametheweb.com/ttwblog/archives/000422.htmlhttp://www.tametheweb.com/ttwblog/archives/000422.html  List of Blogs for Internal Communications – Amanda Etches-Johnson –http://www.blogwithoutalibrary.net/?page_id=94#internalhttp://www.blogwithoutalibrary.net/?page_id=94#internal  Wiki Resources –http://library.usask.ca/~fichter/wiki/http://library.usask.ca/~fichter/wiki/

72. Questions darlene.fichter@usask.ca

73.  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?

74. 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