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Future Projects© 2010 Max Lent Intranet WikiFor those of you who have not used a Wiki, a Wiki can be defined as “A website or similar online resource which allows users to add and edit content collectively.” Wikipedia is an example. It is both famous and infamous as an online encyclopedia. It’s critics claim, rightfully so, that the information published by Wikipedia is often incorrect and not adequately peer reviewed. The concept of a Wiki is sound, it is Wikipedia’s implementation that is flawed. Used in a corporate setting within an intranet, a Wiki has huge potential. Imagine any company that has technical manuals published on its intranet. Those manuals are probably out of date and contain incorrect information. Updating those manuals is probably a slow tedious process where corrections are sent, if they are sent at all, to a committee, writer, or Web publisher for review. The review process could take from days to months. In a world where new products come out more frequently than the old manuals are updated, this process is broken. Now imagine those manuals published as Wiki documents where any employee involved with the product or process could freely edit the document in real-time. A salesperson might discover, upon demonstrating a product, that some function does not work as described. That salesperson could then log in to the corporate intranet, bring up the manual, and change it. Any changes made to the document could be flagged and sent to engineers and technical writers for their review and acceptance. The specifications might change for a product as a result of a new part supplier. That change could be made immediately. Product use warnings could be published in the documentation on the basis of technical support information. Customer manuals could be derived from the intranet Wiki. Forward thinking companies would enable customers to revise manuals on a public Wiki. Imagine a process for getting something done within a company. Usually, important processes are not published. For example, a new employee might have a hundred “How do I…” questions. Those questions are often answered by a well informed administrative assistant, but wouldn’t be better to have them published to an internal Wiki that new employees and others could edit as they discover changes in processes add even better processes? Whole new employee-related topics might show up on the intranet Wiki. HR policies would certainly be published to the Wiki. So would sexual harassment and discrimination policies. Employees could use the Wiki to propose new products, processes, and policies. Other employees could edit and expand on what has already been written. For example, an employee could suggest and idea for a new product that includes text, drawings, and photos. Using Wiki technology that idea could be dismissed or expanded upon. If other employees liked the idea, they might suggest how to use existing corporate resources to create and market the new product profitably. The success of a Wiki requires that executives and managers trust their employees. Wikis are not perfect. There will always be some abuse, some misinformation published, and some employees who will not adapt. The benefits of empowering employees to contribute to their own success are obvious. Giving any participation tool to employees further involves the employee with their company and results in greater loyalty. Enabling an employee who knows a better way to do something to share that knowledge with other employees improves products and processes. In the end, customers are the real winners. They get better products produced by employees who are engaged.
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©1995- 2010 Max Lent
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