Can you Wiki?

Just finished reviewing and evaluating the Leveraging Technology class Wiki projects. I asked the class to create sample intranet content using the Wiki for our class 'fake' company, Ellis Todd Associates.

I was really very pleased with the project and the quality of the student's efforts. One page had more than 200 revisions. The class created interactive content and not just text and links. We had embedded polls from Zoho Polls, YouTube video, presentations from SlideShare and Meebo Me widgets.

The project hammered home the point for me that HR staffs, no matter how small, or seemingly technologically unprepared, can effectively utilize Wiki for numerous purposes. My students built the foundation for a decent small company intranet in about 6 weeks, with no prior experience, all in their free time.

If you are a small organization wondering if wiki technology is right for you, I think the answer is probably yes. Drop me a note or leave a comment and maybe I (or one of my students) can help.

What we've learned about Wikis

As the quarter winds down and the class 'Wiki as intranet' project is just about completed, here are some of the key findings and observations on the project and about Wiki use in the class.

1. If Wikis are new to your program, chances are 90% of the students will have never 'used' a Wiki, beyond reading entries on Wikipedia.

2. Even though Wikis are touted as simple, no-training-required tools, doing more that adding simple text will initially require demonstration and review for most non-technical students.

3. Wikis that make as simple as possible the steps for embedding video, slide shows, Flickr images, chat, and polls (love Zoho Polls for this), will be most effective in the classroom

4. For the best chances of adoption of the Wiki as the primary class communication platform, put everything on the Wiki.  Syllabus, course overview, assignments, presentations, and any 'sign-ups' should all be Wiki pages.  Encourage the class to post questions and comments everywhere.

5. Old habits are still hard to break, you may need to 'cross-post' for a time in both the Wiki and the old course management system.  Certain items like the gradebook still have to reside in the CMS. Try not to make the students have to bounce back and forth between the two platforms too often.

6. Keep the wiki alive even after the class ends.  There's lots of good information there.  Figure out a way to keep it accessible for students in the future.

I am absolutely convinced that Wikis are a much more effective tool for almost all class activities, with the added bonus of giving the students exposure and experience to a technology they will see in the workplace.

Answering the same questions

Implementers of enterprise technology solutions often end up in the 'user-support' role in the early days following the go-live of a new system, or an upgrade of an existing system.  Those first few days and weeks are naturally hectic, bugs and issues are discovered that were overlooked in the testing phase, users are sometimes anxious and error-prone and forgetful.  So it is natural for technology folks to have to respond to numerous calls for help, troubleshoot, and otherwise go to help desk mode for some time.

For implementers, the hope always is that the time spent in help desk mode is short.  Obviously fielding 'I can't print' calls, is not nearly as interesting as mapping processes to solutions, advising on better ways of doing business and experimenting with the latest technologies.

But what happens to the implementer, (and be extension the organization) when the same questions keep coming?  When the ninth different user in a week calls with the same issue?  Or it could be the thirteenth, since the calls may be going to different people?

How long until the organization comes to grips with the enormous waste of time and loss of productivity, answering the same questions over and over again.  There is are scores of tools available (blogs, wikis, forums) available to the organization to capture this information and open it up to everyone.

If you have to answer the same question more than once, it should be published and easily found, so that it doesn't have to be answered a third time.