Wikipatterns videos, and more wiki multimedia stuff …

OK, I have to admit it – I failed. While I wanted to add Stewart’s videos on wiki adoption onto this site as soon as he put them up, add some of my own thoughts and elaborate on this stuff, I missed the easy opportunities of blog fodder miserably …

Perhaps it may appease you that I’ve been able to do some very cool client projects instead, visited cool conferences and Barcamp-alike events, presented and evangelized wiki stuff and more …

Anyway, as a follow-up I guess it’s my duty to link to the stuff you missed out, so here you go, there you’ll find all of Stewarts videos, he’s covering a wide range of wiki adoption issues and potential usage arenas.

Today, and with reference to tomorrow’s WikiWednesdayStuttgart I will only embed one video – on project management with wikis:

And if you’re looking for the other wiki multimedia stuff, there’s another post in a minute or so.

WikiWednesdayStuttgart – Project Management and more

Wiki Wednesday Stuttgart

Yes, I know I am terribly late, but after all alerts and upcoming notices have been plentiful. Tomorrow’s the day when we meet again to discuss potentials of social software for enterprise usage:

It’s the 4th WikiWednesdayStuttgart, and this time we have one main theme: Project Management. So we’ll start at 7 pm – as usual in the rooms of the MFG.

Moreover we’re also meeting for a small group and intensive discussion workshop on the topic at 13.30, if you’re interested in the workshop meet me and fellow workshoppers at noon for lunch.

We’ve got an attractive line-up ready, including Lars Zapf of Workity who will show and discuss his collaboration platform.

Wie Blogs und Wikis (@IBM) die Arbeitswelt verändern

Leider nur noch im kostenpflichtigen Archiv der SZ, dieser Artikel zu den Veränderungen innerhalb der IBM durch Social Software: “Im freien Fluss: Wie Blogs und Wiki die Arbeitswelt verändern“. Damals gelesen und gebookmarked, und daran anlässslich der CeBIT erinnert …

Noch gibt es kaum Unternehmen, die Web 2.0 Technologien so intensiv für den internen Informationsaustausch ausnutzen wie IBM. Dass Big Blue als Anbieter von Software für unternehmensinterne Kommunikationsprozesse auf die Technologie setzt, ist aber nur ein Grund für die starke Nutzung von Web 2.0-Technologien. Das Unternehmen wurde im Jahr 2005 vom Management massiv umgebaut und global ausgerichtet. Die dezentrale Vernetzung wurde dadurch Teil der Firmenstrategie. Viele andere Firmen sind zentralistischer organisiert und tun sich schwer damit, die Kontrolle über die internen Kommunikationsprozese aufzugeben.

Nun ja, rückblickend auf die CeBIT hat IBM meiner Meinung nach das Thema “Kollaboration” dieses Mal etwas verschenkt – zumindest wenn man das Engagement der benachbarten DNUG als Maßstab sieht. Ein, zwei kleinere Angebote am Rand des riesigen Messestands, das war es. Vielleicht auch ganz gut so – schließlich hatte ich so Gelegenheit zu einem ausgiebigen Austausch mit den IBM-/Lotus-Beratern rund um Sametime, Quickr und Connections, und speziell zu deren Erfahrungen in Bezug auf Akzeptanz und Einführungspfade in der IBM. Auch intern sicher kein Selbstläufer, wobei durchaus von wachsendem Engagement berichtet wurde.

Wikieinführung in KMU

Im Rahmen der Content Management Arena habe ich am CeBIT Samstag ein aktuell laufendes Kundenprojekt vorgestellt (“Erfolgsfaktoren der Wiki-Einführung in KMUs”). Zusammen mit einem internenen Projektteam der Firma Chevalier Pipes Technologies CPT führe ich ein Wiki als Ergänzung eines bestehenden Intranets ein, und habe von unseren Zielen und Erfahrungen berichtet.

Die möglichen (internen und externen) Einsatzarenen habe ich eher allgemein vorgestellt, im Gegensatz zu den Vorgehensweise und Erfahrungen, die wir im Projektverlauf gemacht haben. Dies war mir wichtig, weil ich deutlich machen wollte, dass die Umsetzung eines Wikis in KMU kein längerfristiges und teures Projekt sein muss, sondern dass dies – die entsprechende Projektbegleitung und -unterstützung vorausgesetzt – schnell und kostengünstig geschehen kann. Zentral ist, dass Kunde und Berater eng zusammenarbeiten, weil nur gemeinsam der Projekterfolg gesichert werden kann.

Hier die Folien:

Dirk Röhrborn von Communardo berichtet ebenfalls von der Veranstaltung, und betont dass es sich bei CPT nicht um ein IT-Unternehmen im eigentlichen Sinne handelt. Ja, hierdurch ergeben sich sicherlich spezifische Herausforderungen – vor allem in Bezug auf Schulung, Coaching und Helpdesk. Diese anzugehen und tragfähige Konzepte zu entwickeln und umzusetzen ist eine der wichtigeren Beratungsaufgaben in diesem Kontext.

Wrapping up the Enterprise 2.0 SUMMIT

It’s been a splendid conference, met many of the people I was in more or less virtual contact only before.

One thing that I really want to highlight is the moderation by Simon Wardley, who also did a good roundup of the day (nice slides too, I hope I can get my hands on them). Next up there’s a question ‘n answers session, i.e. a panel with Dion, Euan and Jenny on stage.

First question: is there going to be a kind of standard (enterprise collaboration) software? Euan has doubts, stressing that BBCs systems were highly customized and evolved over a long period of time.

And then the inevitable standard question on “how do we get employees to participate”?

Yes, I know this is an important question, alas, Dion offers these ideas:
– managers are important, lead by example but also demand coherent behaviour. I side with this, nobody would use SAP etc. out of their free will, but people are still using it on a regular basis.
Euan stresses that it’s the other way round: give people tools that make their lives easier, usage will follow suit, making it feasible to reach a critical mass after that things will roll on no matter what
Jenny points out the central role of positive role models in the organization, i.e. people who can even act as opinion leaders, I think this is a good idea too, and yes, that’s one archetypical application of SNA in the enterprise …

Next up some questions on collaboration between companies, cross-industry and all. Well, yes, that’s not a particularly innovative theme, is it? I’m (also) dealing and blogging about business ecosystems, value networks and open innovation at my other blog for quite some time now, thus this fascination in parts of the audience feels a little weird.

Now up are the closing remarks by Thomas Koch from Kongressmedia, inviting everyone to the get-together. Will be there too …

Jeff Schick @ E20Summit

Now, last slot before lunchtime (and me meeting the guys from BlueKiwi, perhaps Bertrand ttoo?) Jeff Schick of IBM (Vice President, Social Computing Software, in the IBM Software Group) is up, speaking on the practical experiences with social software in the enterprise.

Looks back into the long past, argues for cave dwellers as early archetypes of collaborators, then only a little bit back: Usenet, whois, IRC and other early communication tools). Nodding smiles in the audience, oh the joys of nostalgia.

Interesting insights into IBMs practice

– wide spectrum of corporate blogs inside IBM (purposeful / semi-purposeful as he coins it)
– communication mashups (I would call it that way)

He argues that Enterprise 2.0 can be seen well from a very pragmatic point of view, that’s what IBM is doing. Yes, there are LOADS of bloggers inside, the reasons and rationales are diverse, but individual uses are OK.

Nice insights into the virtues of meandering around, doodling around in communities of interest. I would call this fishing for serendipity …

Another cool thing, Emergence seems to be a big theme for IBM this CeBIT, I will add my snapshot later on, batteries are runnng low now.

Euan Semple @ E20Summit

Now Euan Semple on the “Quiet Revolution” at the BBC and what they did at the BBC about 6yrs back. BBC’s cool, check out Backstage for a start of what they’re doing, see also Ian Forrester.

He starts off with the cluetrain, the power of relationships that’s underlying.

Tells us how troubleshooting and “helpdesk stuff” was handled in the BBC then, it was clear that they needed a way for users to find the needed information by themselves … when sharing knowledge via Email is cumbersome, distributed replies etc. make it difficult to compile and refactor “answers”

– the collective space (“Connect”) that they devised was a lightweight and very usable platform
– fostering communities leveraged existing informal communities, users were allowed to introduce their own spaces

Euan likes the term “interest group” more – as opposed to community – I can understand this, communities can’t be engineered and “ordered for”, yet they emerge around common interests and tasks.

– they added blogs to the mix, Euan shortly points out the often overlooked little things (permalinks for a start)
– wikis too, example BBC blogging guidelines, done with a Confluence wiki.

Then he diggs into some Web 2.0 tools that are in the mix too, like
– RSS readers
– tagging too, explains the rationale behind tag clouds (“a more organic way of navigation information”), mentions Thomas Vanderwal too …
– social networks as “information mediaries”, showing his Last.fm page and stream of played music, then Plazes too.

With the closing slides he’s putting on speed again, showing Innocentive open innovation network and Zopa p2p lending before leaving the stage to Jeff Schick of IBM.