We recently read a blog post that outlines some great ways that educational institutions can use an Enterprise Wiki. The post describes 50 Ways to Use Wikis for a More Collaborative and Interactive Classroom, and has a lot of great use cases that are pertinent to many classrooms of all levels of education.

There are a number of ideas that meet the needs of corporations and business teams as well.  Organizing ideas, group authoring, creating a glossary, and developing an FAQ library are all great examples of how any organization can benefit from a wiki.

One other point not to be overlooked is that there are 50 items in this list- and there could be many more.  One of the strengths of wikis is that they are so flexible, and having a flexible wiki within a complete enterprise web collaboration solution provides you with a way to enhance every part of your organization.

We recently added Discussion Forums to our Enterprise Wiki product, and we began to get requests in our demos for an explanation of when to use which collaboration tool.  So, we wanted to share our take on how each of these valuable collaboration features could be used effectively in an organization. 

WIKIS - Wikis are used primarily to capture knowledge and information.  Wikis are intended to be living repositories that can be contributed to by everyone, which provides a more complete, accurate, and relevant view of key knowledge.  Even though a wiki page should never be considered "complete" (changes happen all the time), they are meant to capture information that can be referenced for longer periods of time.  In addition to knowledge management, shared content editing, notification, status reports, data collection, and project management are all excellent uses of a wiki.

BLOGS - Blogs are a great way to broadcast news or get quick feedback.  Unlike wiki pages, blog posts are usually very time-sensitive, so they have less relevance as time passes.  An example is that someone creates a blog post to comment on an article they found online.  If that post was made a year ago and was about the soaring sales of Sport Utility Vehicles, that would have very little relevance today.  There is interesting perspective to be found in historical blog posts, however.  If someone brings up an idea that was shot down 2 years ago because of the feedback in blog comments, you can go back and see what the reasons were.

FORUMS - Forums organize complex conversations and help you make decisions.  Email is terrible for complex conversations.  How many times have you gotten an email blast that asks you to comment on 5 different bullet points- only to try to follow the responses from everyone else.  And then having the main conversation breaks off into several side conversations- only a few of which you might care about.  Forums solve that by following a trial of thought about each point in the discussion.  Than, at the end of the conversation, you have a great resource to make decisions that you can be confident in- since everyone can participate and give their perspective.

We do believe that every team, department, and organization is different- so we encourage you to find as many ways to enhance collaboration as you possibly can.  If you have specific questions about how to use these tools to improve your organization, just let us know!

On occasion, while we are helping a new customer roll out their new BrainKeeper Enterprise Wiki, one of our client's employees will ask the question, "What's in it for me?".  It might not be asked quite this directly, but ultimately, this is the question that they are asking.

The initial response is always the same:  It depends on what you put into it.

Since wikis are social in nature, those who actively participate in creating, editing and improving the content are the ones who get the most reward.  Ultimately, you will be seen as an expert in the subject areas where you contribute most, allowing other team members to develop trust and a reliance on your expertise.  This also has the added benefit of raising your perceived (and actual) value within the organization, since everyone is able to clearly identify what you are knowledgeable about- and you are willing to share that knowledge with everyone in the company.

In addition to these social and professional rewards, there are also personal rewards that go along with actively participating in a Wiki.  For example, satisfying your natural instinct to make things better when you contribute to existing knowledge or the satisfaction of creating and maintaining information that you really care about will give you a sense of personal satisfaction.  These natural tendencies are part of the reason why Wikipedia thrives, and will play a part in the success of the Wiki within your organization.

This is not to say that passive users, those who simply use the wiki to answer questions or find information, get nothing.  In fact, they get a great deal out of the Wiki too.  For example: getting answers to questions without having to wait for an emailed response, or the ability to determine who is an expert on specific subjects, are both great ways for information consumers to get value out of your Wiki. 

So, instead of asking what you are going to get out of it, simply make a conscious effort to help others through the wiki- and they will help you.

Quite often, we work with potential and existing clients who have recognized that they need a better way to collaborate- and have chosen an enterprise wiki as the solution.  We obviously believe that implementing an enterprise wiki is a key factor in improving collaboration for organizations, but the full answer is more than just deciding to subscribe.

Wikis are indeed becoming more mainstream, but too many people consider a wiki to be a system that sustains itself immediately after it is rolled out.  The "if you build it, they will come" mentality can work (and actually has worked for a few of our subscribers, believe it or not), but this is the exception- not the rule.  It is more likely that you will need a strategy for how to use your wiki- and to make sure that strategy is communicated and reinforced in as many ways as possible.  Here are five keys to executing your wiki collaboration strategy:

1.  Make Sure a Wiki is the Right Tool

Before you get too far, make sure that the need you have can be completely addressed with a wiki.  This is where a month-to-month subscription can be very beneficial.  Try it out for 30 days with a small group of people who will take the time to use the wiki and give you honest information about whether it will work for you or not.  Also, don't be afraid to use your enterprise wiki support and sales staff.  If the are experts at the same level as the BrainKeeper Customer Support team, they will be able to give you a great deal of good information about how to use your wiki for a particular task.

2.  Find a Champion and / or Key Stakeholders

A sense of ownership is one of the most powerful motivating factors in the corporate world.  Give one person, or a small group, the responsibility to make sure that the wiki is being used- and used properly!  By having respected personnel buy into the wiki, you will have advocates that become mentors.  Also, make sure that you reward the heaviest contributors, which might mean adding them to the group that manages the wiki.

3.  Start Small

To ensure that everyone understands what the wiki should be used for, start off with a Workspace that contains content which many people can relate to.  Many people will quickly see the value of the wiki and understand how it will be used in your organization.  By starting small, you can manage it closely, you get a quick success story, and you have a great foundation to build from.

4.  Constant Feedback

Consistently ask about how things are going with the wiki.  If people like it, find out why so that you can spread the information to other people.  If people don't like it, find out why.  You, or a BrainKeeper Customer Support representative, may be able to solve it quickly.  Make sure to get feedback early and often!

5.  Learn From Experience and Adapt Your Strategy Accordingly

Not every aspect of every point from above will apply to everyone.  But this one does apply: whatever strategy you start with will change.  You need to be able to recognize when things aren't working, and modify how you use your wiki.  Your wiki will grow organically, so the policies that govern its use will have to do the same.  Preparing everyone for this ahead of time will be very helpful when it comes time to make those changes.

For more help on developing your wiki collaboration strategy, the experts who work with the BrainKeeper Enterprise Wiki are more than happy to talk to you.  Let us know if you are interested.

There are plenty of examples of individuals, teams, and entire organizations getting a wiki setup, but where the expected impact was simply not there.  This might be from expectations that were too high, less-than-stellar communication about what the wiki was for, or the lack of a champion that pushed adoption. However, the most common reason that a wiki initiative sputters out is that people don't see the value (or don't see enough value) to make it worth changing the way they work- even by the small amount that is required for good enterprise wikis.

Based on our experience, we have identified several things that you can do to revitalize your wiki:

1. Talk to Your Wiki Provider
We have seen hundreds of wiki implementations.  You can talk to us about why you got the wiki in the first place and discuss thoughts on why it hasn't worked as well as you would have liked.  In most cases, at the end of a 30 minute conversation, you will have several ideas to get people back into your wiki.

2. Simple = Success
People can sometimes bite off more than they can chew.  Expecting that you will be able to use a wiki to immediately address 10 - 20 issues that your organization has is not reasonable.  You will end up making progress on only a few of those issues- and not enough to solve any one of them.  By picking just one issue, or even one aspect of an issue (like communicating customer announcements to internal staff), you will be able to focus your team on a great use case for your wiki- and have a great example to build from.

3. Build on What Works
There may be a rare case in which you would start from scratch with your content, but most likely, there are portions of your wiki that serve a valuable function.  Interview people in your organization to find out what is useful, then archive what is not.  Now you can continue to build on the content that is valuable, and people will have a great resource for those topics.

4. Address the Problem AND the Perception
Create a wiki page where everyone can contribute their thoughts and issues with your wiki.  Most of the time there are only a couple major points from each person- and most of those will usually be the same concerns.  Once you have the issues out in the open, work with the people who contributed those ideas to find solutions.   By getting buy-in from some of the more vocal and respected people in your organization, you will get better use out of your wiki, and others will follow suit.  The people who helped create the poor perception of the wiki will then be advocates for it.

5. Create a Method of Feedback
Make sure that you don't stop this process after implementing some of the ideas above- or implementing any of your own ideas!  Other issues will emerge as your organization changes (growth, process changes, responsibilities shifting, etc.) and you need to have a method to capture the concerns that people have.  A wiki page can work quite well for this, but someone needs to be actively monitoring it.  It is essential to take action on people's concerns- and then to communicate the action that has been taken.  If people feel that their ideas are taken seriously, and they see progress being made, they will be very likely to continue giving you the feedback you need to make your wiki a great success.

Getting started with a wiki from scratch can be a daunting task- particularly if your organization has been sorely in need of a knowledge management and collaboration system for a long time.  A shared drive that has as much out of date and inaccurate content as it has valuable information will ultimately result in a failed attempt at knowledge sharing- since no one knows what is worth looking at.  Keeping everything in email can be even worse, as critical information is trapped on someone's PC, with no way for new employees or partners to access it.  You might have a home-grown solution, created by people who don't know the first thing about how to manage information.  You might have all or none of these, but when you realize that you need a better solution, and a wiki fits the bill, here are some tips on how to get your team started.

Communication
It is always a good idea to fully explain to everyone the benefits of a wiki, and how those benefits apply specifically to everyone.  If you can give people a reason to contribute- then they will at least give it a chance.  If you can convince them that their jobs will be easier, that they will ultimately be able to save time, or show exactly how they can work better with their co-workers, then you are almost assured that you will be able to build a solid foundation for your wiki.

Incentives
These can be as simple as incenting everyone on your team to add one new page and contribute to someone else's page each week.  Or throw a pizza party if your team reaches a content goal of a specified number of pages.  If all else fails and you are in management, you can also tie bonuses and performance evaluation scores to wiki contributions- though this is not something that we recommend.  The more that people feel like they own the content, the more organic growth you will get, which is the key ingredient to a successful wiki.

Initiatives / Projects
Take a topic, an idea, or a difficult problem and challenge your team to solve it purely though wiki collaboration.  This not only gets people familiar with the wiki, but it demonstrates the power of the tool, and you get a great resource at the end of the initiative.  If you work on projects within your wiki, create a meeting agenda item to review various pages that you can create for Issues / Problems, Lessons Learned, or Status Updates.  By bringing your laptop to the meeting and displaying the wiki for everyone to see, you get great participation and exposure.

Get Everyone Involved
There are always people in every team who are the recognized and respected leaders.  Get these people to contribute, and you will see others follow suit.  Also, if you can, get your Managers, Directors, and Executives to contribute.  Even a comment here or there will let people know that upper management is paying attention, and thereby validating the content in the wiki. 

There are a number of approaches for starting a wiki- and most are reasonable and will lead to success.  The keys are: getting people to understand what a wiki can do for them as individuals as well as the company, providing concrete examples that show the value of the wiki, and getting the right people involved.