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This is the presentation material for the Wiki Collaboration and Wiki Applications for the Enterprise conference talk in the Emerging Technologies Track at LinuxWorld in San Francisco, 11 Aug 2005

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Slide 1: Wiki Collaboration and Wiki Applications for the Enterprise

Writable webs empower employees to share knowledge effectively and to be more productive

  • Wiki, a writable web: Communities can organize and share content in an organic and free manner
  • If extended with the right set of functionality, a Wiki can be applied to corporate groups to schedule, manage, document, and support their daily activities
  • A Structured Wiki combines the benefits of a Wiki and a database application
  • This talk explains what a Structured Wiki is, and shows some sample applications using TWiki, an open source enterprise collaboration platform

Conference talk in the Emerging Technologies Track at LinuxWorld in San Francisco, 11 Aug 2005
-- Peter@ThoenyPLEASENOSPAM.com

Slide 2: Agenda

  • What is a wiki?
  • Wiki in the enterprise
  • Collaboration challenges in the enterprise
  • Requirements for an enterprise wiki
  • Structured Wiki
  • What is TWiki?
  • Structured Wiki Examples
  • Initial Deployment of a Wiki

Slide 3: What is a Wiki?

  • WikiWikiWeb = Writable Web
    • As quick to contribute as e-mail
    • As easy to use as a website
  • Ward Cunningham implemented the original WikiWikiWeb in 1995 to collaborate on software patterns
  • Inspired by HyperCard; some call it a Blog for groups
  • The original WikiWikiWeb has these features:
    • Read-write web, every page can be edited using just a browser
    • HTML form based editing with a simple markup
    • Pages are linked automagically with WikiWords

Slide 4: Blogs vs. Wikis

  • Blog: (Weblog)
    1. Key: Easy to publish opinions of individual, in sequential posts
    2. Media to express individual voice
    3. "Post media" (like e-mail), usually with feedback and trackback
    4. Typically hosted service (e.g. Six Apart's TypePad)
  • Wiki: (WikiWikiWeb)
    1. Key: Easy to create and refactor content owned by group
    2. Media to express group voice, deemphasizing identity of individuals
    3. "Refactor media", content may change at any time
    4. Usually open source software, installed on own server
  • Some Blogs have Wiki-like features, some Wikis have Blog capabilities

Slide 5: Wiki Offerings

Slide 6: Wikipedia

  • Wikipedia: Wiki + Encyclopedia Wikipedia
  • A free encyclopedia that is being written collaboratively by its readers
  • Project started in January 2001
  • The most active public Wiki: There are over 600,000 articles and 300,000 registered users in the English language Wikipedia; many more in other languages
  • Anyone in the world can edit any page.
  • Doesn't that lead to chaos?
    • Domain experts contribute
    • Well defined policies for contributing and handling content
    • Graffiti gets removed quickly (many eye balls; rollback available)
  • Content can be freely distributed and reproduced under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL)

Slide 7: Wiki Basics: WikiWords for Linking

  • Easy to create hyperlinks within a Wiki, just use a WikiWord
  • WikiWords are capitalized words, run together, e.g., WebCollaboration, IntranetTools
  • To create a link to an existing page, edit a page and type:
    • For more info, see IntranetTools
  • If the 'IntranetTools' page exists, it is turned automatically into a link:

Slide 8: Wiki Basics: Creating New Pages

  • First, edit the page where you want to spin off a new page, and type in some text that includes a WikiWord for the new page:
    • For more info, see WebServices
  • After you save the page you will get:
    • For more info, see WebServices?.
  • The '?' is a link (to a page that doesn't exist, yet)
  • Now, to create the WebServices page, click on this link, type in some text and save it
  • If you return to originating page and hit Refresh, the link now covers the whole WikiWord:

Slide 9: Wiki in the Enterprise

  • Perceived issues with conventional Wikis in the corporate world:
    • No control; chaotic
    • No security
    • No audit trail
  • A Wiki system with the right extensions can be used in a corporate environment
  • It can address some internal challenges:
    • Maintenance of static Intranets
    • Internal E-mail flood
    • Implementation of business processes

Slide 10: Challenges of Static Intranets

  • Challenges - Static Intranet Some content is outdated
  • Incomplete content
  • When was the page last updated?
  • Difficult to find content
  • Inconsistency across departments
  • Special tools, knowledge and permission required to maintain
  • Content is static, it has a "webmaster syndrome":
    If an employee discovers a page with incorrect or insufficient information, the employee will often ignore it because it takes too much time to find out who the webmaster is and to write an e-mail requesting an update

Slide 11: Wikis and Static Intranets

  • Wiki and Static Intranet Move some/all Intranet content into a Wiki
    • No difference for readers to browse and search content
    • Employees are empowered to fix content on the spot
    • Ease of maintenance
    • No need to install client side software
    • Consistent look & feel
  • Paradigm shift
    • from: webmasters maintain content
    • to: domain experts and casual users maintain content

Slide 12: Challenges of E-mail

  • Challenges - E-mail E-mail and mailing lists are great, but:
    • Post and reply vs. post and refine/refactor
    • Great for discussion, but ... hard to find "final consensus" on a thread
    • E-mail is not hyper-linked and is not structured, content can't be grouped easily into related topics
    • E-mail and attachments are not version controlled and it is difficult to determine the history of a document
    • Not all interested people / too many people in the loop

Slide 13: Wikis and E-mail

  • Wiki and E-mail Move some E-mail traffic into a Wiki or Blog
    • Ease of reference (cross-linking)
    • Flexible notification (favorites only, daily digest, RSS feed)
    • Pockets of knowledge made available to interested parties
    • Audit trail / domain experts
  • Paradigm shift
    • from: post & reply
    • to: post & refine & cross-link
  • Send e-mail with link to content instead of content itself

Slide 14: Challenges of Business Processes

  • Challenges - Business Processes Business processes are implemented in large scale by IT department (Sarbanes-Oxley compliance etc.)
    • Rigid structure by design
  • Teams follow formal/informal workflow to accomplish tasks, which is often a paper-based process:
    • Roll out laptops to employees
    • Status board of call-center
    • Sign-off for export compliance of a software release
  • No resources allocated to implement applications to automate those processes
    • IT department has no bandwidth to implement light weight applications for a variety of teams

Slide 15: Wikis and Business Processes

  • Wiki and Business Processes A Structured Wiki is a flexible tool to support evolving processes
    • in the free-form Wiki way -- linked pages, collaboratively maintained
    • or with a structured Wiki application -- forms, queries, reports
  • Content contributors with moderate skill sets can build web applications
  • Paradigm shift
    • from: programmers create applications
    • to: content contributors build applications
  • Similar shift happened with the introduction of spreadsheet programs

Slide 16: Requirements for an Enterprise Wiki

  • What to look for:
    • Version control -- audit trail
    • Access control -- security
    • File attachments -- document management
    • Ease of use -- productivity
    • Feature set -- create web applications
    • API -- integration with existing enterprise applications
    • Support -- get help when needed

Slide 17: Open Source Wikis for the Enterprise

  • PHPWiki: A feature-rich implementation with support for various databases (PHP)
  • Tiki: A CMS with Wiki, Slashdot-style forums, blogs, image galleries, chat, etc. (PHP)
  • TWiki: Structured Wiki and collaboration platform for the enterprise, many Plugins (Perl)
  • XWiki: Feature rich Wiki implementation, compatible with some TWiki Plugins (Java)
  • ZWiki: A Wiki implementation that runs on the Zope application platform (Python)

Slide 18: What is a Structured Wiki?

  • Goal of a Structured Wiki:
    • Combine the benefits of a Wiki and a database application
  • Wiki:
    • Organic content: The structure and text content of the site is open to editing and evolution
    • Open content: Readers can refactor incomplete or poorly organized content at any time
    • Hyper-linked: Many links to related content due to WikiWord nature
    • Trust: Open for anyone to edit, "soft security" with audit trail
  • Database application:
    • Highly structured data
    • Easy reporting
    • Workflow (e.g. purchase requisition)
    • Access control

Slide 19: Usage Pattern in a Structured Wiki

  1. Users typically start with unstructured Wiki content
    • Example: Call-center status board
  2. User discovers patterns in content
    • Example: Call-center status board has fixed list of users and fixed list of time slots
  3. User or administrator builds an application, typically in iterations
    • Goal: Automate tasks based on discovered patterns

  • In other words: A Structured Wiki enables users to build light weight applications

Slide 20: Example: Call-Center Status Board, v1

  • Requirement for status board:
    • Easily see who is on call at what time
    • Easily change the status board
  • Start with a simple bullet list for status board v1:
     
    • 07:00am - 11:00am: Richard
    • 11:00am - 03:00pm: Peter
    • 03:00pm - 07:00pm: Sam

Slide 21: Example: Call-Center Status Board, v2

  • Status board v1 does the job, but lets make it more presentable and useful:
    • Convert the bullets into a table
    • Use WikiWord links to team member's home pages for easy reference
    • Add Backup person
  • Improved status board v2:
    Start End Primary Backup
    07:00am 11:00am RichardDonkin  
    11:00am 03:00pm PeterThoeny  
    03:00pm 07:00pm SamHasler  

Slide 22: Example: Call-Center Status Board, v3

  • Status board v2 is presentable, now lets make it more user friendly:
  • Improved status board v3, view and edit:
    statusboard.gif

Slide 23: What is TWiki?

  • TWiki started as a Wiki engine, and quickly evolved into a Structured Wiki for the Enterprise
  • Mission: TWiki is a leading-edge, web-based collaboration platform targeting the corporate intranet world. TWiki
    • fosters information flow within an organization
    • lets distributed teams work together seamlessly and productively
    • eliminates the webmaster syndrome of outdated intranet content
  • Large number of TWiki Extensions: Add-Ons, Plugins, Skins
  • Open Source software (GPL) with active community, hosted at http://TWiki.org/

Slide 24: What is TWiki used for?

  • TWiki is a Structured Wiki, typically used as a:

  • Shared notebook for projects: Repository, scheduling, meetings
  • Departmental collaboration tool: Processes, project reviews, QA tracking
  • Intranet publishing tool: IT, HR, ISO standards
  • CMS with focus on free-form collaboration: Requirements capture
  • Knowledge base: Problem/solution pairs with attached patches
  • Platform to create web based applications like news portals, inventory systems, issues tracking systems

Slide 25: Who is using TWiki?

Slide 26: Who is developing TWiki?

  • 5 Core Team members
  • 14 developers with SVN write access to DEVELOP branch
  • Over 100 contributors donating ideas, spec, code, patches
  • Many TWikiExtension developers
  • Main communication vehicle: TWiki at TWiki.org for brainstorming, feature and bug tracking, doc authoring, and support
  • Lots of ideas waiting to be implemented
    • Talk to us if you are interested in participating in building the future smile

Slide 27: TWiki Basics: TWiki Shorthand

  • TWiki Shorthand
    • Simple formatting
    • Easy to learn
    • Content is more important than nice formatting
      • "Think e-mail"
  • What about HTML?
    • TWiki renders HTML
    • Better practice to use TWiki shorthand, easier to maintain by other users
  • Limitation: HTML form based editing, not WYSIWYG

Slide 28: TWiki Basics: Version Control

  • Pages are under revision control:
    • See previous page revisions
      • Click on the r1.4 type links at bottom of page
    • See differences between revisions
      • Click on the Diffs link at bottom of page
    • See who changed what and when
  • 'Soft Security' - anyone can change anything, but changes are logged
  • Complete audit trail, even for meta data like access control

Slide 29: TWiki Basics: Access Control

  • Default - use Soft Security
    • Avoid roadblocks to knowledge sharing
  • Special applications - use Access Control
    • Avoid write access restrictions - "If you can see you can play"
  • Access Control:
    • Define groups in Main.TWikiGroups
    • Set read/write/rename access restrictions to webs and pages based on these groups
  • Complete audit trail of access control settings

Slide 30: TWiki Basics: Skins

  • TWikiSkins change the look of a TWiki topic, for example the style of the text and the layout of the header and footer
  • Separation of program logic, look and content
  • Corporations typically create their own skin to match the corporate branding standard
  • Many SkinPackages available for download at TWiki.org
    Skin samples

Slide 31: Adding Structure: Context of Content - Database Table

Flat, no hierarchy:
Database table -- flat
Context: Mainly next/previous; search

Slide 32: Adding Structure: Context of Content - File System

                Tree hierarchy:
File system -- tree hierarchy
Context: Down/up; search

Slide 33: Adding Structure: Context of Content - HTML Pages & Wikis

                                Hyperlink structure:
HTML pages -- hyperlinks
Context: "What is related" browsing; search

Slide 34: Adding Structure: Context of Content - TWiki Structure

                                                Tree + hyperlink structure:
TWiki -- tree + hyperlinks
Context: Down/up browsing; "what is related" browsing; search

Slide 35: Adding Structure: Context of Content - TWiki Breadcrumb

                                                Where am I?
TWiki breadcrumb -- path to home
Breadcrumb example: Home > Plugins > PluginPackage > PluginDevelopment

Slide 36: Adding Structure: TWiki Variables

  • TWiki Variables are what environment variables are to an OS, or macros are to a programming language
  • TWiki Variables are text strings - like %SCRIPTURL%, %URLPARAM{"city"}%, %INCLUDE{"OtherPage"}% - that get rendered at page view time
  • Types of variables: Predefined variables; preferences variables; user defined variables
  • Useful to create web applications

Slide 37: Adding Structure: TWiki Forms

  • Use TWikiForms to add form-based input to free-form content, e.g., you can structure topics with unlimited, easily searchable categories
  • A form is defined in a topic - (DB table definition)
  • Forms can be attached to topics - (DB table row)
  • The form appears in edit mode, and its content gets rendered as a table when viewing the page

Slide 38: Adding Structure: Formatted Search

  • Use FormattedSearch to generate customized reports in list format or table format
  • Typically used to list topics with form data
  • Report is embedded in a page with a %SEARCH{...}% variable
  • Example applications:
  • Example report:
    Example Plugins report

Slide 39: Adding Structure: TWiki Plugins

  • TWikiPlugins enhance the functionality of TWiki and add structure to content
  • Growing Plugins repository at TWiki.org - over 160 Plugins available for download
  • A great resource for administrators and web developers to tailor TWiki to their needs, like for example with:

Slide 40: Adding Structure: Spreadsheet Plugin

  • SpreadSheetPlugin: Add spreadsheet formulae to TWiki tables
  • Over 60 formulae available like $AVERAGE(), $IF(), $REPLACE(), $TIME(), $SET(), $GET()
  • You type:
    | *Region:* | *Sales:* |
    | East    |  320 |
    | Central |  580 |
    | West    |  240 |
    | Total: |  %CALC{"$SUM($ABOVE())"}% |
  • You get:
    Region: Sales:
    East 320
    Central 580
    West 240
    Total: 1140

Slide 41: Structured Wiki Example: Feature Tracking

Slide 42: Structured Wiki Example: Employee News Portal

  • Click to enlarge: News portal with aggregated news above the fold, and directory below the fold Goal for Employee News Portal:
    • Reduce e-mail flood to the corporate-wide mailing lists
    • Reach a broader audience
    • Intranet home page as a newspaper
  • Specification:
    • News channels: IT, Engineering, Sales, etc
    • Each news channel has an editor group, responsible for releasing news
    • Subscribe to news channels of interest
      • Some news channels are "always on", e.g. employees cannot unsubscribe
      • Aggregated news is shown on intranet and sent via e-mail
  • More details at TWikiNewsPortal

Slide 43: Structured Wiki Example: TWiki Installation Directory

Slide 44: Initial Deployment of a Wiki

  • Grassroot vs. managed deployment of a Wiki
    • Single corporate Wiki better then many smaller Wikis
  • Plan content and rollout
    • Pain killer vs. vitamins
  • Build initial structure
  • Populate initial content with help from early adopters
  • Initial rollout with smaller group
  • Train and coach users Quick growth after slow start at Wind River
  • Do not underestimate inertia and time
  • Expect quick growth after slow start

Slide 45: Summary

  • A Structured Wiki is a powerful platform for web collaboration
    • Collaborate in free form and add structure as needed
    • Use it as shared notebooks, a departmental collaboration tool, a publishing tool, a CMS and a knowledge base
    • Use it as a platform to create light weight applications
  • Easy to share knowledge
    • Corporate brain gives a competitive advantage
  • Careful coaching is needed
  • Viral growth after people "get it"

Slide 46: Questions & Answers




Slide 47: References

Slide 48: References, cont.

Slide 49: About Peter

  • Peter Thoeny - Peter@ThoenyPLEASENOSPAM.com
  • Founder of TWiki, the leading Wiki for corporate collaboration and knowledge management, managing the open-sourced project for the last six years
  • Invented the concept of Structured Wikis - where free form wiki content can be structured with tailored wiki applications
  • Recognized thought-leader in Wikis and social software, featured in numerous articles and technology conferences including LinuxWorld, Business Week, Wall Street Journal and more
  • Software developer with over 15 years experience, specializing in software architecture, user interface design and web technology
  • Graduate of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich
  • Lived in Japan for 8 years working as an engineering manager for Denso Create, developing CASE tools
  • Now in the Silicon Valley for 7 years, managing the Knowledge Engineering group at Wind River

Notes

-- PeterThoeny - 10 Jun 2005

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