Interview with Ross Mayfield

Paul Dunay interviewed Ross Mayfield on wikis and published it as a podcast. You can’t download the audio file, but you can listen to it via a flash player.

I like this way of presentation, as it shows the cut marks of the recording and allows to skip forward and backward in the TOC:

Start podcast 00:00:00
Enterprise 2.0 defined 00:00:28
First Enterprise 2.0 deployment 00:02:07
How to Implement a Wiki 00:02:46
SAP’s Wiki implementaion 00:04:55
External marketing Wiki example 00:06:06
The Best Way to rollout a Wiki 00:08:13
How to build Adoption of your Wiki 00:11:55
What is the typical first project to start a Wiki? 00:14:59
How to get more info on Wikis 00:15:48

This interview touches also a lot of stuff that I layed out in my presentation here. No wonder I recommend both to anyone interested in social software for the enterprise …

CxOs and Enterprise 2.0

Via 7 days and more, this article in Digit:

Company leaders are being urged to embrace blogs and other “Web 2.0” technologies to improve their businesses, but some executives say it’s easier said than done.
[…]
“This is the next major shift in technology. It will last 15 years — but it’s the next five years that will decide which enterprises will thrive and take advantage of the new tools”

The concerns CEOs voice are for real, yet they should not stop thinking, experimenting and probing this space, even when there’s strict compliance and governance regulations and a need for tight security:

“If you think first about regulations, you’ll never do anything,”

Podcast on Motorolas wiki use

Dan Bricklin writeups a podcast (mp3) with Toby Redshaw of Motorola on their continued wiki use. Sound quality is not that good, it’s a telephone call recording after all, but it’s OK for me.

We learn about Motorola’s internal usage of wikis and blogs, the ways of implementation, actual usage in the organization, the role and usefulness of wiki gardeners and yet more on success factors :

They prune old and unused content, sometimes having a blog that lasts just a very short time. They work hard to keep it all fresh and up to date. They have knowledge champions in various areas who help do this. He feels these “domain owners” are an important part of facilitating the “quality” of the information and its organization. This is internally oriented, which has everybody with the same mission of advancing the company’s goals and under the same governance to keep out bad behavior, etc. This is not Wikipedia on the public web.

I also like this take on the further ways of Enterprise 2.0 concepts as they make inroads into all corporate environments (given that Motorola has probably a high geek-factor in its workforce anyway):

Toby sees an evolution towards “enterprise mashups” with business process management, enterprise information management systems, structured data management systems, data warehouses, and wikis. Process management data that shows a choke point or other problem in a process can link back automatically to a search of wiki data to find prior material relating to that situation and even identify individuals to be called in. They are trying to use both structured and unstructured information.

And there’s more interesting stuff, worthy 45 minutes.

IBM ShortCuts Podcast on being a wiki evangelist

On time with the BusinessWeek feature on wikis in the enterprise IBM’s ShortCuts Podcast has another take with Luis Suarez, who offers tips on becoming a wiki evangelist (remember this picture of another evangelist …). Here’s the mp3.

What are some key factors in supporting and nurturing a wiki? How does one launch a socially collborative web experience and keep it from failing? In this episode, Shortcuts knowledge management expert Luis Suarez offers tips on becoming a wiki evangelist.

Knowledge Management Champion

superkmchamp2_klein.jpg

Via Patrick Lambe, this hilarious picture of a knowledge management champion. Yes, this seems to be no easy task, and is true for social software activists in the enterprise as well. But as one commenter noted this nice little creature bears some resemblance to Ganesha, the God of success and victory, he who removes obstacles …

Embrace emergent behavior to be successful with Enterprise 2.0

Stewart Mader offers insight and adoption advice for enterprise 2.0 projects. I appreciate his take on the subject, especially about allowing emergence:

[…] If you begin using a wiki in your organization and users start doing something differently, don’t stop them, and don’t just let them – encourage them! What they’re doing is probably better then the previous way, and by encouraging them, you’re building loyalty to the new tool that increases its chances of success. […]

Yes, and it’s a good idea to keep it simple, until seeing the patterns that evolve, and then supporting these. This calls for management to let go of its acquired (and hard-earned they are!) competencies and mindset. Yet, modifying deeply ingrained traits is hard.

So, in the light of social software in the enterprise it’s not primary the people, but the architects of organizational collaboration that need to change. This expands the common understanding of change management, and makes clear that enterprise 2.0 implementation efforts must not only address the primary users of the tools.