Stewart Mader blogs atWikiConsulting.com

Larry Cannell recently wrote a piece for Collaboration Loop called I Hate Files, where he argues that reliance on files makes information harder to find & use: “I don’t even want files. What I want is the information stored in a file…I have been thinking about files and documents lately and I have come to the conclusion that our reliance on the computer file as the primary structure for storing our digital “stuff” is hurting us in ways we cannot see. This is holding us back from realizing truly breakthrough capabilities.”

Breakthrough capabilities like those offered by a wiki.

Unlike the file paradigm where individual documents are pushed out to people, a wiki pulls people in to work on information in a common space. That’s a breakthrough capability because it gets past the “physical” limitations of a file, and lets people directly interact with information. This makes for a more sensible organization system, and better version control - both of which are lacking in the file paradigm.

“I believe one of the reasons why it is easier for a group to manage and share documents using online office suites (rather than with files) is because they use the web rather than tolerate it. (emphasis mine) This is an important concept that was noted by Tim O’Reilly in his original Web 2.0 blog post. He referred to it as using the “web as platform” and is an important design pattern for Enterprise 2.0 too.”

One commonality among blogs, wikis and other social tools is that they respond to patterns of human behavior better then tools like email and traditional knowledge management software. Wikipatterns.com was created specifically to document these patterns and give wiki users a place to share information about the trends they see on their own wikis.

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Penny Edwards discusses some of the data and conversations on wiki growth she gathered for Managing Wikis in Business. The post is well worth reading - here’s her summary of some important conclusions: “…managers should be more involved in the adoption and growth of wikis by giving people time to become accustomed to, experiment with, contribute to and maintain the wiki, being responsive/alert to how the wiki should be integrated with work processes and new areas for its use, and leading by example and reminding (e.g. placing information and tasks on the wiki). Consideration should also be given to the benefit of providing initial adaptable structures to guide users and the support/training necessary to encourage people to be responsible for the wiki. In that way, people will be encouraged to capture tacit knowledge (which could be otherwise lost in casual/social problem-solving encounters) that is valuable to them in their everyday tasks and which they care enough about to make it worthwhile maintaining.”

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Today, I’ll be joined by Anne Goldenberg, Ted Ernst, Mark Bernstein, François Beauregard, and Dirk Riehle on a panel called, “Wiki Patterns: What Works and What Doesn’t?” at WikiSym 2007. We’ll share & discuss the best ways people have found so far for stimulating collaboration in organizations and communities. Some of those ideas are documented on Wikipatterns.com, and panelists will further explore these and other ideas, share stories about getting a wiki started, and discuss their experiences building participation and interest in using it.

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By now, you’ve probably seen the announcement that Microsoft and Atlassian made yesterday morning about the SharePoint Connector for Confluence. So why is this important from a wiki adoption and use perspective? It frees organizations from the “One size fits all” mentality and enables them to let people choose the best tool for their work - with the knowledge that no matter what they choose the tools will work together.

One of the recurring issues in discussions about enterprise 2.0 has to do with the relationship between new tools like wikis, and more traditional enterprise software. Should the new tools fully replace the existing ones? Can they? And even if they can, will organizations shed their investments in those existing tools and make a wholesale move to the new ones? I don’t think it’s a “one or the other” choice, and organizations that have invested in tools like SharePoint aren’t likely to just write off that investment.

So there has to be a “third way” that involves making the tools work together, and the SharePoint Connector is a good example of that. When tools like SharePoint and Confluence can work together, it helps organizations that already have SharePoint feel more confident responding to demand for a wiki like Confluence, knowing the two can work side-by-side. As Zoli said: “just removing the “we’re a SharePoint-shop” political obstacle in some major enterprise clients is worth it alone.” People can use the tool that’s best for their work, (Colin Toal left a good comment on Mike’s blog about this: “You deliver a tonne of value that is beyond simply locking out other products and the integration is slick.”) and not end up with problems like redundant, separately evolving sets of information housed in disconnected places.

Connections like this represent the best of what social media and enterprise 2.0 is really about: collaboration at all levels (including software makers), transparency and easy discovery of information regardless of the “place” where it resides, and a further evolution away from the material constraints that have hindered the effective use of information in organizations.

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Robert Scoble stopped by Atlassian’s San Francisco office today, and just interviewed me about Wikipatterns.com for his kyte channel: watch the video. Robert interviewed me using a Nokia N95, and it immediately uploads the video to kyte: within seconds after recording the video, we were all gathered around my laptop watching it. Kyte is the kind of tool that I hope will give traditional TV, “news,” etc. a run for its money. Thanks Robert!

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Back in July, I encouraged readers to contribute to a survey on wiki use in business being conducted by Penny Edwards for her MBA dissertation at The Open University Business School. The results of that research are out now in Managing Wikis in Business, on Penny’s blog. The wiki where she has documented the research is worth a look as well. It even has a page on Wiki Patterns, and cites a book called Patterns for Effective Use Cases that calls patterns a sign of quality: “a pattern expresses what is present in a well-formed example” and a sign of strategy: “a pattern names a way to deal with conflicting pressures.” These are excellent terms to describe patterns, and good reasons to use them to help start or grow your wiki. After all, who wouldn’t want to use tools that signify quality and strategy?

This quote especially stood out for me in the report: “Given the relative newness of many wikis, the responses suggest that wikis and capabilities regarding their use/management are still being developed internally before being extended outside the organization, where important collaborations lie with customers.”

That’s the next great step. Once you get comfortable with a wiki inside your organization, there’s immense potential waiting to be tapped when you use it to interact with customers and give them a place to share knowledge and strengthen the community around your products.

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Over on the Atlassian Blog, my colleague John Rotenstein has written an excellent post exploring the differences between Wikipedia and wikis as used in organizations. In Wikipedia is not the real world, John looks at a series of misconceptions about wikis, such as “It’ll be vandalised!”, “I don’t want people editing whatever they want!”, “A wiki is fine for reference material, but not for communication”, “I don’t want people wasting their time posting silly information”, and “My staff would never use a wiki!”. To counter these, he offers good, solid arguments that show why these statements are mostly borne of fear and misunderstanding of wikis, and finishes the post by directing those looking to encourage wiki adoption to Wikipatterns.com.

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This is the second in a series on wiki adoption, based on my visits with organizations in the midst of wiki adoption. Part 1 is here. Once your group starts using the wiki, be firm about making sure people don’t drift back to earlier means of collaboration. For example, if you used to send out meeting agendas by email, and now you put them on the wiki and email a link to the appropriate page, you may get someone who protests and asks for the agenda by email. They may argue that it’s more work to get an email and have to link to a wiki page, instead of just having the agenda right in the email.

If this happens, I’d suggest responding that although it seems like an inconvenience now, it’s really only a temporary inconvenience that paves the way for several improvements. First is a reduction in email when people are using to going to the wiki and an email with a link to the meeting agenda wiki page is no longer necessary. The second is a further reduction in email when people need to edit the agenda and can do so directly on the wiki instead of emailing the person who sent the agenda.

The third improvement is that now information is stored in a more archival, accessible, and secure format than email: if you were to lose your laptop or it’s stolen, email is lost along with it and this can compromise the security of sensitive information. However, if you’re using a wiki, that information is stored on a secure server and won’t be lost or compromised as easily.

The fourth improvement is that once you start using the wiki for meeting agendas, it lays the foundation for further wiki use, like managing the tasks and projects that arise from the agenda. It’s this organic use that makes the wiki quickly become an indispensable tool for information and collaboration.

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