Case study presenting experiences from launching an wiki on the company intranet. It provides points to consider before initiating such an initiative and what to consider for the implementation.

1. Wiki from Theory to Practice
Niklas Sinander
Enterprise Content Manager
EUMETSAT
www.eumetsat.int
niklas.sinander@eumetsat.int
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2. Wiki from Theory to Practice
Mission
... to deliver operational satellite
data and products that satisfy
the meteorological and climate
data requirements of its
Member States – 24 hours a day,
365 days a year
Darmstadt, Germany
550 employees
30+ nationalities
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3. Wiki from Theory to Practice
 Our problem
Employee fluctuation
Long time to settle in
Settling in information
out of date
Large number of emails
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4. Wiki from Theory to Practice
 Our solution: Internal wiki
Open to all and easy to use
Content created by employees
Always up to date
Self governing
Less non business related emails
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5. Wiki from Theory to Practice
 Experiences from the field
Launch activities
Stumbling blocks
First Impressions
Tweaks
Did it meet the need?
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6. Wiki from Theory to Practice
Some hard facts
900
800
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb
Mar
Page views
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Apr
May
Updates
Jun
Jul
New articles
Aug
Sep

7. Wiki from Theory to Practice
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8. Wiki from Theory to Practice
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9. Wiki from Theory to Practice
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10. Wiki from Theory to Practice
Some things to consider before you start …
 Real need or just a new toy
 Wiki or Do Nothing
 Company culture
 Management attitude
 Critical mass of people
 Critical mass of content
 Geographical spread
 Organisation wide or unit/project
 Grass Root or Top Down
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11. Wiki from Theory to Practice
and when you have got the green light to implement…
 In house or outsourced
 Consider usability – simple/advanced
 Establish measurement baseline
 Start with a clear use case
 Dedicated user groups
 Define a Governance Model
 Define Usage guidelines
 Develop Wiki Editing Guidelines
 Offer training
 Be patient!
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12. Wiki from Theory to Practice
Wiki Editing Guidelines – adopted from wikipedia
1. Be bold! in editing pages. Go ahead, it's a wiki!
2. Encourage others to edit articles, including those who disagree with
you, likewise to Be bold!
3. Be civil to other users at all times.
4. When in doubt, take it to the article’s Discussion page. Mutual respect
is the guiding behavioural principle of the wiki and it is easier to
accept changes if the reasons for them are understood.
5. Assume good faith; in other words, try to consider the person on the
other end of the discussion to be a thinking, rational being who is
trying to positively contribute to the wiki.
6. Be gracious: Try to accommodate other people's quirks the best you
can, and try to be as polite, solid and straightforward as possible
yourself.
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13. Wiki from Theory to Practice
We tried to change company culture to be more open
and to share information with the use of technology,
and had difficulties.
What other approaches would have worked?
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