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Policy and Process Considerations for Collaborative

Authoring Environments

Janet SwisherMozilla

Session hashtag: #boring

(Things to Think About)

Before You Pick a WikiJanet Swisher, @jmswisher

MozillaSession hashtag: #b4wiki

Baseline assumptions

A wiki is a website that allows the creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor. —Wikipedia

Most wikis are not like Wikipedia

Why use a wiki?

Internal Workgroup

coordination Knowledge capture Project management Strategic planning

External Customer

knowledgebase Product documentation

Our scenario

Your organization is considering or has decided to move some customer-facing information (documentation or knowledgebase) to a wiki.

Photo by kenna takahashi

Photo by Nate Steiner

Photo by Jim Linwood

A wiki is just a (kind of) CMS Authoring environment Content repository Delivery platform

Ann Rockley, Managing Enterprise Content, p. 312

10 Questions to ask before startingfrom WIKI: Grow your own for fun and profit, Alan Porter

What business issue will the wiki resolve?

How will you measure success?

What is the expected return on investment?

Where will the content come from?

Who will use the wiki initially?

Who will use the wiki in the future?

Who will own the wiki? Where will the wiki be

hosted? Which wiki should I

use? What controls will I

need?

Who will contribute?

90%: “lurk” but never contribute

9%: do a little 1%: do a lot

Jakob Nielsen, Participation Inequality: Encouraging More Users to Contribute

Who will do what?

Roles• Writers• Editors• SMEs• Managers• Partners• Customers

Tasks• Writing• Editing• Reviewing• Updating• Maintaining

Define the editorial workflow

• Pre-publication review (may be necessary for external wikis)

• Post-publication review (via RSS feeds)• Ad hoc review

Define the publication workflow

• Default: What happens in the wiki stays in the wiki

Photo by Thierry

Define the publication workflow

• Wiki as an output format only: DITA2wiki

Define the publication workflow

• Print output from a wiki – Confluence PDF export– MediaWiki Pdf Export extension

(see wiki.service-now.com for an example)

Who stands behind it?

IANAL: Consult your attorney for legal advice.

• Warrantied content (read-only)• Unwarrantied content (user-contributed)

What can we do with users’ content?

IANAL: Consult your attorney for legal advice.

• Grant a license vs. assign copyright• Explicitly stated in terms-of-use• Should be irrevocable

What can users do with our content?

IANAL: Consult your attorney for legal advice.

• Default: All Rights Reserved• Creative Commons• Other terms

Thanks!

• Resources I mentioned: http://www.janetswisher.com/?itemid=283

• Email me: JMSwisher@gmail.com• Follow me: @jmswisher

• Share your feedback: http://www.surveymonkey.com/stcsummit