Download - Wikis, Blogs and RSS For Operational Communications Darlene Fichter University of Saskatchewan [email protected] OLA Super Conference February 3,

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Wikis, Blogs and RSS For

Operational Communications

Darlene FichterUniversity of [email protected]

OLA Super ConferenceFebruary 3, 2006

Darlene Fichter

Overview

Internal collaboration & communicationWikis and weblogs and RSS

– How do they work– What are some of the benefits– What to use when

QuestionsWhat 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 processesPersonal web publishingCommunity building IntranetDon’t know

Do you blog, read weblogs or contribute to a wiki?

Does your organization use blogs, wikis or RSS?

Poll: Committees and TeamsHow many groups do you belong to?

None one to two three to five More than 5How do you share information?

– Email– Mailing list– Shared file server– BBS– IM

What are some of the limitations?

What if …

Reduce email overloadHave an archive of the work done to dateBuild a knowledge base auto-magicallyHave 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

WeblogsWikisRSS

What is a Weblog?

Blog/ Weblog is web site with pages:Containing brief entries arranged

chronologicallyCan 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

Monthly ArchiveFeeds

Blog Post

Weblogs Meet Two Primary Needs

Informing

Interacting

Questions and comments

Publishing and syndicating

Excellent at one-to-many communication

Can allow participation and commentsBreak down the silosCreate “connected content”

Weblogs Can Create New Relationships

Why are Weblogs Adopted So Quickly

Simple way for employees to share ideas

FlexibleA good match between the

“need” and the “knowledge worker”

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

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

Read it

Comment

Readvia a newsreader

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

Automated Web Surfing

One Click to Rule Them All

Yahoo Search

New IT Books

BBC Data Ref Blog Ref Desk Blog

NYT

IT Status LoansTrials Staff Events

RSS News Readers / Aggregators

http://www.coldal.org/clips/3rings.mp3

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 peopleOne 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 authorsMultiple blogsCreate categoriesSimple to use (very little training)Built-in search engineArchives by month

Blog Statistics

Launched March 2004521 posts in 18 monthsVery few comments

User Acceptance and Adoption

Everyone has postedThree people are the most active and post oftenIs used as a “reference” and not read daily by most

staffEmail 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 Contact Us Electronic Virtual

edit edit editedit

Wiki pages look like web pagesAnyone 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

edit editsave

...KMWorld 2005

…KMWorld 2005

Anyone with a web browser can edit a wiki siteAnyone can undo any change at any time

Make a new page by typing the name in CamelCase, aka WikiName

Creating New Pages

Title

… NewName …

edit edit

NewName

Click on any WikiName to see pages that link to it

Wiki Design PrinciplesOpenness and trust

– if a page is incomplete or inaccurate anyone can edit it Incremental

– pages can cite other pages, even those not yet writtenObservable

– you can see the changes being madeOrganic

– site structure is up to everyone, and it will evolve and changeMore principles…

Wiki Design Principleshttp://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 reportsShared 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: FeaturesAttach a File

Import Word

Emails

Send an Email

Make a comment

Inviteusers

Changesvia RSS

Search

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 structurePopulate initial content with early adopters Initial rollout with smaller group Train and coach users Do not underestimate inertia and time

*Peter Theony, Wiki Based Collaborationhttp://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Codev/TWikiPresentation17Feb2005

Build the initial structure

Practical TipsHave 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

2005http://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

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

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 collaborationTools are simple, quick and inexpensiveThey belong in our collaboration toolboxOur 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]

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?

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