The native speakers of the islands of Hawaii probably had no notion of the inadequacy of the Word and Email duopoly to corporate communications when they coined the term Wiki - literally meaning fast. However, Wikis have grown into just that -- a fast and efficient way of fostering knowledge sharing across corporations worldwide; combining elements of Word, email, RSS, plugins and other relevant technologies.
A Wiki-Induced Stimulus for Knowledge Management
2009 White Paper
Copyright eTouch Systems 2009 1 Introduction The native speakers of the islands of Hawaii probably had no notion of the inadequacy of the Word and Email duopoly to corporate communications when they coined the term Wiki - literally meaning fast. However, Wikis have grown into just that -- a fast and efficient way of fostering knowledge sharing across corporations worldwide; combining elements of Word, email, RSS, plugins and other relevant technologies. Aside from being fast, Enterprise Wikis have grown out of the social need for a more participatory and inclusive form of dialogue. This is especially true as compared to the top-down, hierarchical and role-based nature of Content Management Systems (CMS) that typically follow the model of: "I write; John edits; my boss approves." The CMS trend flourished in the 1990's as a natural method to automate the creation and publishing of web content, specifically html files. However, it fostered an environment in which roles were well-defined, and the final say on what constituted acceptable content resided with a chosen few. Instead, Wikis create a milieu in which employees and members of a group project are Wikis create a milieu in which encouraged to express their thoughts through actual page content, forums, discussion people are boards and ratings; thereby introducing a more egalitarian communication dynamic within encouraged to express their companies. They also addressed a fundamental productivity issue: achieving consensus thoughts through on any topic, such as a knowledgebase item, required an endless clutter of email with actual page content, forums, Word documents (and attending to track/accept changes) attached. Wikis, in stark discussion contrast, by nature of their design offer a centralized view of content and easy access to boards and polls all participants; thereby eliminating a lot of the redundancy and frustration inherent in communicating, maintaining version control and collaborating via email and word processors. The macro trends portend an extremely favorable growth for Wikis. Studies by major research groups like Forrester forecast a multi-billion dollar market for Web 2.0 software tools. Organizations across geographies and verticals are reaping substantive benefits of investing in Web 2.0 productivity-enhancing tools.
Copyright eTouch Systems 2009 2 What's the ROI on a Wiki? Many of the advantages of Wikis are qualitative and hard to quantify; however some can be codified as a first step towards assigning a monetary value to each:
. Saving significant amounts of time in trying to locate relevant information . Reduce time spent on unnecessary email and email spam . Reduce time trying to achieve consensus on Word documents using Track/Accept changes from multiple people . Realize advantages of a centralized and consistent repository of information. . Unleash the creative potential of employees by empowering those traditionally at the . periphery of all corporate discussion . Easily create and track version documents for various reasons, including regulatory provisions . Reducing the time for expert discovery within organizations
Some of these can be codified as a first step towards assigning a monetary value to each:
. Reduce time spent on unnecessary email . Reduce time dealing with email Spam . Reduce time trying to achieve consensus on Word documents using Track/Accept changes . Realize advantages of a centralized and consistent repository of information. . Ability to unleash the creative potential of employees by empowering those traditionally at the periphery of all corporate discussion . Ability to easily version documents for various reasons including regulatory provisions Even a cursory glance at these statistics reveals the compelling economics behind the Wiki revolution. As Enterprise Wikis ma... [download for more]
