The GroupSwim Diving Board

We hosted a great webinar yesterday on how to use wikis to improve productivity in your business.  Stewart Mader and I hosted over 40 people for the session.  Here is what we covered:

1. Defined wikis and their use in business
2. Described how wikis can be used for project management and knowledge capture
3. Demonstrated how GroupSwim works in this use case
4. Explained how Stewart used a wiki to write his book (WikiPatterns) and the benefits associated with this method
5. Showed how GroupSwim works in this use case
6. Discussed adoption strategies and tactics for using wikis in business
7. Answered questions

Here is a recording of the webinar if you would like to watch it.  We enjoyed the experience and will do more in the future.

Update: The webinar participants asked questions during the session.  Here they are with our answers:

1. Can you import XML into GroupSwim?

• No.  You can import HTML and copy and paste from other wikis.  We will be adding XML importing features in the future

2. Is your wiki available as a virtual extension of your book to continue the conversation online?

• The best place to continue the conversation online is Grow Your Wiki. You’ll find lots of articles on wiki uses, case studies, adoption strategies, and ongoing conversation among readers. Here are a few articles you may find helpful:
  • 21 Days of Wiki Adoption
  • Does your organization have these boundaries to collaboration?
  • When to wiki? When not to? 4 Tips to Consider
  • 5 Effective Wiki Uses and How Companies Benefit From Them

3. Can you use multi-media in wikis?

• Yes.  For example, you can embed video, images, and audio files in GroupSwim wikis

4. What was the process of going from a wiki to a hard copy book?

• In some cases, I directly exported content from the wiki as XML, then inserted that XML into the publishing templates. In a few instances where more complex formatting was required, I simply copied and pasted content out of the wiki and into the publishing templates. The bottom line with a wiki is that it doesn’t store content in any proprietary file formats, so putting content in or taking it out of the wiki can simply be a matter of copying and pasting text.

5. Is WikiPatterns available as a PDF?

• Wikipatterns is currently available as a softcover book through Amazon.com and major bookstores. If you’d like to see the book become available in an electronic version, you can vote for Amazon to create an electronic version for their Kindle ebook reader.

6. How is a wiki different than an intranet?

• A wiki can be the intranet for your organization. Especially in smaller organizations that don’t have a lot of other content management and collaboration tools, a wiki is a great choice to serve as your central knowledge management and collaboration hub. In larger organizations, the intranet often serves as an organization-wide information dissemination tool, but not a knowledge and collaboration hub for individual teams. A wiki is complementary to the intranet because it gives teams and departments a virtual workspace to organize their meeting agendas & minutes, project materials, documentation, and shared knowledge.

7. Is there any interface between wikis and bberrys?

• You may be able to access wiki pages using the browser in your BlackBerry, but perhaps the better way to use a BlackBerry in connection with a wiki is to subscribe to wiki pages for updates via RSS or email. Those updates can be sent to your BlackBerry, and you can stay up-to-date as others on your team update content on the wiki.

8. Do you have any strategies for convincing wikiphobic (and/or technophobic) coworkers to make the switch?

• Some people look at Wikipedia, and become concerned about all wikis being a free-wheeling, anonymous, potentially anarchic “mess”. But wiki use inside an organization and Wikipedia are two completely separate worlds. Inside an organization, the audience is much more stable and easily identified – it usually consists of employees, business partners, and – in some cases – customers. Therefore, the need to have a wide-open, publicly accessible site to attract users isn’t necessary. The more important considerations inside an organization are: interoperability with other business tools, ability to organize content by department, team, or project, and the ability to assign read and edit permissions to the appropriate content for each person.

9. In a company of about 70 employees, how long would you estimate the adoption process would take before fully utilizing a wiki?

• It depends.  Some factors include:
  • Current tools and infrastructure
  • Management support
  • Company culture
  • Incentives
• In our experience, we have seen some customers adopt them aggressively and quickly once they see how effective wikis are.  In other circumstances, it could be a month or more.

10. Is it possible to port mediawiki content to GroupSwim?

• The best way to move is copy and paste.  We’ve had other customers use this method, and I just tried posting an article from Wikipedia into GroupSwim and it worked perfectly; we don’t currently have an automated method for doing this.

11. Is this permission/community based so that different departments can maintain their pages but keep others from editing their pages?

• GroupSwim is organized by groups within a site, so you can set the permissions to allow departments to limit who can see or edit their wikis.  The group and permission structure is extremely powerful and you can do all sorts of things to organize your site.

12. Are users added to GroupSwim or can Active Directory be used?

• You can use either method.  We can integrate with a company AD, or site membership can be managed from GroupSwim; it is up to you.

13. Is GroupSwim hosted?

• Yes.  GroupSwim is software as a service and is not available any other way.

14. What is the best way to publish content on a wiki into a document, if needed?

• GroupSwim allows you to copy and paste the content (or HTML) directly into other applications.  We are adding the ability to export wiki content as PDFs and/or Word documents in the future.

15. Can you recommend some wikis that are easy to edit?

• Yes.  GroupSwim