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Wikis, Blogs and RSS For Operational Communications Darlene Fichter University of Saskatchewan [email protected] 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? – – – – – Email Mailing list Shared file server BBS IM What are some of the limitations? 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 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 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 Feeds Monthly Archive Blog Post Weblogs Meet Two Primary Needs Informing Publishing and syndicating Interacting Questions and comments Weblogs Can Create New Relationships Excellent at one-to-many communication Can allow participation and comments Break down the silos Create “connected content” 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%) Personalknowledge knowledgemanagement management (23%) Personal (23%) Event logging (23%) Team management (20%) 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 email (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 - http://www.blogwithoutalibrary.net/?page_id=94#internal Basic Blogger — Reader Interaction Blog it Comment Read it Read via a newsreader What is RSS? Automated Web Surfing “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 One Click to Rule Them All Yahoo Search BBC Data Ref Blog Ref Desk Blog RSS News Readers / Aggregators NYT New IT Books Trials IT Status Staff http://www.coldal.org/clips/3rings.mp3 Events Loans Newsreader – Lots of Choices www.bloglines.com Feeds What if …you don’t want an RSS reader Many tools that support RSS to email notification – – – – Rmail http://www.r-mail.org/ Bloglet - http://www.bloglet.com/ Bot a Blog - http://www.botablog.com/ Squeet - http://squeet.com/ 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 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 Email notifications are used for “alerts” on any urgent posts Build off email 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 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 edit Contact Us edit Electronic edit 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 ...KMWorld 2005 edit save …KMWorld 2005 edit Anyone with a web browser can edit a wiki site Anyone can undo any change at any time Creating New Pages Make a new page by typing the name in CamelCase, aka WikiName Title NewName … NewName … edit edit 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 http://www.c2.com/cgi/wiki?WikiDesignPrinciples Wiki Examples: Wikipedia www.wikipedia.org Wikipedia: Recent Changes Time Lapse – London Bombing http://thelastminute.typepad.com/blog/2005/07/the_day_citizen.html 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 http://www.library.ohiou.edu/subjects/bizwiki/index.php/Main_Page Tour: Library Wikis Internal uses – – – – – Staff Intranet Projects Event planning IT documentation Helpdesk – reference / library ITS Library Intranet http://wiki.lib.umn.edu/ Library Intranet http://wiki.lib.uconn.edu/wiki/Main_Page Project/Committee http://www.seedwiki.com/wiki/b-team/ 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 www.jotspot.com WYSIWYG Editor What Pages Have Changed? See What Changed Single Page or Side by Side Wiki (Jotspot) Anatomy: Features Search Attach a File Import Word Emails Make a comment Send an Email InviteChanges users via RSS Event Planning and Support http://coppul.jotspot.com (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 http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Codev/TWikiPresentation17Feb2005 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 Tools to Help You Choose Wiki Matrix – 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/ Weblogs and Wikis Face Off Photo Credit: Pascal Vuylsteker http://www.flickr.com/photos/pvk/ CC Attribution 2.5 Wikis Weblogs Group voice Individual voice Unstructured, organic Default is by date, reverse chronological Anyone edits Anyone comments Fluid medium: change any time Post medium like email (comment, reply, comment, …) Better management: versions, rollback and change log, syndicate changes Edits aren’t tracked usually, new items are syndicated Less familiar 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 – http://www.tametheweb.com/ttwblog/archives/000422.html List of Blogs for Internal Communications – Amanda Etches-Johnson – http://www.blogwithoutalibrary.net/?page_id=94#internal Wiki Resources – http://library.usask.ca/~fichter/wiki/ Questions [email protected] Why Weblog/Wiki and Not a CMS? 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 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