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This presentation was held at the monthly meeting of the Internet Developer Group on 20 May 2003. A webcast is available at their web site.

Slide 1: Web Collaboration with TWiki

Writeable webs empower employees to share knowledge and to be more productive

Presentation for Internet Developer Group on 20 May 2003

-- Peter@ThoenyPLEASENOSPAM.com

Slide 2: Agenda

Introduction
Challenges of Intranets
Challenges of Distributed Teams
Challenges of CMS
What is knowledge?
What is a Wiki?
What is TWiki?
Who is using TWiki?
Who is developing TWiki?
Highlights of TWiki

Limitations of TWiki
Resources for Learning TWiki
Advanced Features
Web Applications
Initial Deployment
Collaboration Issues
Case Study Wind River
Summary
Questions & Answers

Slide 3: About Peter

Peter Thoeny - Peter@ThoenyPLEASENOSPAM.com
Software developer with over 15 years experience, with interests in corporate collaboration, web technology and UI design
Author of the open source collaboration software TWiki, managed the project over the last four years
Graduate of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich
Lived in Japan for 8 years working as an engineering manager for Denso, the largest auto electric parts supplier in Japan
Now in the Silicon Valley for 5 years, managing the Engineering Operations group at Wind River

Slide 4: Introduction

Web collaboration empowers teams to work faster and more productively
Web collaboration is used to schedule, manage, document, support and present the work of task groups
Teams may co-reside in one building or be spread out around the world in different time zones
Their work may be secured or openly available
Collaboration works best if the culture is "right"; it needs to be coached appropriately
Today's talk focuses on TWiki, which is a leading open-source GPL web collaboration platform

Slide 5: Challenges of Intranets

Conventional Intranet sites are typically not very popular
This is because:
- Some content is outdated
- The quantity is limited
- Difficult to find content; inconsistent
- Special tools and knowledge required to maintain
- Content is static, it has a "one webmaster syndrome"
Example of "one webmaster syndrome":
- If I discover a page on the Intranet that has incorrect or insufficient information, I just ignore it because I am too busy to find out who the webmaster is and to write an e-mail requesting an update
- Result: Content tends to get stale

Slide 6: Challenges of Distributed Teams

Open questions:
- How to get a virtual team working together efficiently?
- How to get everyone in sync?
- How to avoid duplicate efforts?
Typical answers:
- Scheduled conference calls
- Occasional visits
- Shared drives
- Exchange documents by e-mail
- Instant Messaging (IRC, AIM, ICQ, etc)

Slide 7: Challenges of Distributed Teams (cont.)

Issues with e-mail and mailing lists:
- E-mail gets lost after some time
- Search is limited to email client
- 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 easily be grouped into related topics
- E-mail and attachments are not version controlled, e.g. it is difficult to determine the history of a document

Slide 8: Challenges of CMS

Rigid structure (can be good and bad)
Control over content more important then free form knowledge sharing
Content is typically structured hierarchically or in table format, with limited cross-linking between pages
Limited support for unstructured content, or content that has "structure and exceptions"

Slide 9: What is Knowledge? How can it be Fostered?

KM: Is all about knowledge management
Can knowledge be managed?
- Von Krogh, Nonaka and Ichijo in Enabling Knowledge Creation, ISBN:0195126165, do not think so:
- Knowledge can only be enabled
Five key knowledge enablers:
1. Instill a knowledge vision
2. Manage conversations
3. Mobilize knowledge activists
4. Create the right context for knowledge creation
5. Globalize local knowledge

Slide 10: What is a Wiki?

WikiWiki = Writeable Web
- As quick to contribute as e-mail,
- as easy to use as a website
Ward Cunningham implemented the original WikiWiki in 1995 to collaborate on software patterns
Inspired by HyperCard
Design principles:
- Open - Should a page be found to be incomplete or poorly organized, any reader can edit it as they see fit.
- Incremental - Pages can cite other pages, including pages that have not been written yet.
- Organic - The structure and text content of the site is open to editing and evolution.

Slide 11: What is a Wiki? (cont.)

The original WikiWiki has these features:
- Every page can be edited, using just a browser
- Read-write web, every page can be edited using just a browser
- HTML form based editing
- Pages are served dynamically
- Pages are linked automagically with WikiWords
- Simple markup, no need to learn HTML
Over 100 Wiki engines based on the original Wiki idea, mostly open source

Slide 12: What is TWiki?

TWiki started as a Wiki engine, but has outgrown its roots and is now a platform for web applications
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; and eliminates the one-webmaster syndrome of outdated intranet content."
Open Source software (GPL), hosted at http://TWiki.org/

Slide 13: What is TWiki? (cont.)

A Wiki in the original sense, but also:
A shared notebook for projects: Repository, scheduling, meetings
A departmental collaboration tool: Processes, project reviews, QA tracking
An Intranet publishing tool: IT, HR, ISO standards
A CMS with focus on free-form collaboration: Requirements capture
A knowledge base: Problem/solution pairs with attached patches
- TWiki started its life as a KB for support
A platform to create web based applications like news portals, inventory systems, issues tracking systems

Slide 14: Who is using TWiki?

Many corporations, like 3Com, AMD, Alcatel, AT&T, Boeing, ... Xerox
- BT, Inktomi, Disney Corp, Motorola, SAP, Wind River and others submitted success stories
Academia, like Brandeis University
Also communities on the Internet, like IPCop Firewall, Hurd GNU fans, blueDonkey.org
Statistics:
- > 28K downloads
- > 10K on mailing list for upgrade announcements
- > 1000 installations
See TWikiInstallation directory to see who is using TWiki for what purposes

Slide 15: Who is developing TWiki?

Six Core team members with CVS write access:
- PeterThoeny (CA), NicholasLee (New Zeland), AndreaSterbini (Italy), JohnTalintyre (UK), MikeMannix (NY), RichardDonkin (UK)
Over 100 developers contributing spec, code, patches
Main communication vehicle: TWiki at TWiki.org

Slide 16: Highlights: Web Environment

Slide 17: Highlights: Interactive Environment

Add and refactor content - "Share Knowledge"
- Vs. posting e-mails
Notification of changes:
- Get notified of page changes by e-mail or RSS feed
- A way to keep everybody in synch
- Also a way to check content by senior engineers
Peer review for up to date content:
- Fix a posting that is inaccurate or insufficient

Slide 18: Highlights: WikiWords for Linking

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

Slide 19: Highlights: Creating New Pages

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

Slide 20: Highlights: 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 21: Highlights: Access Control

Define groups in Main.TWikiGroups
Example TWikiAdminGroup page:
- Set GROUP = AndreaSterbini, JohnTalintyre, MikeMannix, NicholasLee, PeterThoeny, RichardDonkin
- Set ALLOWTOPICCHANGE = TWikiAdminGroup
Set read/write/rename access restrictions to webs and pages based on these groups
- Set ALLOWWEBCHANGE = TWikiAdminGroup
Default - use Soft Security
Special applications - use Access Control
Avoid write access restrictions - "If you can see you can play"

Slide 22: Highlights: Preferences Settings

Three level of preferences settings:
- TWikiPreferences: Site-level settings
  - Example: Site name, proxy settings, access control, skin
- WebPreferences in each web: Web-level settings
  - Example: Web specific access control, navigation links, colors
- In each user's home page, e.g. TWikiGuest: User-level settings
  - Example: Edit box size, preferred skin

Slide 23: Limitations of TWiki

Is a purely web based environment. This has the following implications:
The editor is simply an HTML form; browser editors are primitive
- Some browsers allow you to launch your preferred editor, like w3m on Unix
Non WYSIWYG editing; nevertheless rich text can be created using a very simple markup language (WikiSyntax)
- Type: Make text *bold* and =fixed=
- Get: Make text bold and fixed

Slide 24: Resources for Learning TWiki

It takes 20 minutes to learn TWiki essentials and start sharing knowledge!

Read TWiki.WelcomeGuest
Sign up TWiki.TWikiRegistration
Follow the TWikiTutorial (optional)
Check TextFormattingRules while editing a page
- (follow link in lower right hand corner of edit box)

Slide 25: Advanced Features

TWiki skins
TWiki variables
Server side includes
TWiki forms
Formatted search
Plugins
Plugin API

Slide 26: Advanced: TWiki Skins

TWikiSkins change the look of a TWiki topic, for example the layout of the header and footer
Rendered text between header and footer does not change
You can also use skins to define an alternate view, like a view optimized for printing
Separation of program logic, look and content
Many SkinPackages available for download at TWiki.org

Slide 27: Advanced: TWiki Variables

TWikiVariables are text strings - %VARIABLE% - that expand into content whenever a page is opened
There are predefined variables like %RED% and
%GMTIME{"$day $month, $year"}%
There are preferences variables like %EDITBOXHEIGHT%
You can also define custom variables, with new names and values

Slide 28: Advanced: Server Side Includes

Include other topics (all or part of)
Include other web pages (all or part of)
Details in TWikiVariables and IncludeTopicsAndWebPages

Slide 29: Advanced: 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 the contents are rendered as a table when viewing the actual page

Slide 30: Advanced: Formatted Search

Use FormattedSearch to generate customized reports in list format or table format
Typically used to list topics with attached form data
Report is embedded in a page with a %SEARCH{...}% variable
Examples:
- MeetingMinutes application
- ChangeRequest application

Slide 31: Advanced: TWiki Plugins

TWikiPlugins enhance the functionality of TWiki
Growing Plugins repository at TWiki.org
Example: Formulas with SpreadSheetPlugin

You type:
| *Region:* | *Sales:* |
| Northeast | 320 |
| Northwest | 580 |
| South | 240 |
| Total: | %CALC{"$SUM($ABOVE())"}% |

You get:

Region:	Sales:
Northeast	320
Northwest	580
South	240
Total:	1140

Slide 32: Advanced: Plugin API and Plugin Internals

A TWikiPlugin is composed of a Perl module that gets installed on the server and a topic with help and Plugin configuration
A Plugin implements callbacks that extend the functionality of TWiki
An API for TWikiPlugins provides the specifications for hooking into the core TWiki code from your external Perl Plugin module

Slide 33: Web Applications

The basic feature set of TWiki can be used to implement web applications
We look at two examples:
- TWiki Installation Directory
- Workflow system to track features and bugs of TWiki
Use/create Plugins for more advanced applications

Slide 34: Web App: TWiki Installation Directory

The TWikiInstallation page lists TWikis installed on public and access restricted web sites
The entries can be filtered by type of organization, type of use and more
Built as a TWiki application using TWikiForms, TWikiVariables, FormattedSearch

Slide 35: Web Application: Feature Tracking

New features of TWiki are tracked in TWiki.
New entries are classified as:
These features can be promoted to:

Slide 36: Initial Deployment

Install TWiki on web server
- Note: Web server administration skills are assumed
Plan rollout and content
- Pain killer vs vitamins
Build initial structure
Populate initial content with help from early adapters
Initial rollout with smaller group
Train and coach users
Do not underestimate inertia and time

Slide 37: Collaboration Issues

'Don't Touch' syndrome
- Looks like a 'proper website'
- 'Better not touch it, John Smith owns that page'
Shared knowledge vs. 'Owners' - "I don't want to edit someone else's page"
- Wiki culture: nobody 'owns' pages, and any change can be built upon.
- First person to create page is *not* the owner!
'No control' syndrome - "This leads to chaos"
- Nightmare of DB admin; perceived as disruptive by upper management
- Soft security and audit trail

Slide 38: Collaboration Issues (cont.)

Effort - "It takes too much time to contribute"
- Save time by doing less e-mail, and finding critical info quicker
- Learn new technology and share by taking notes on TWiki
TWiki syntax - "yet another language"
- TWiki is e-mail, e.g. just *do it*
- Use the help pages, doesn't take long to learn
E-mail Habit - "I prefer e-mail"
- E-mail doesn't scale - new people, new technology, new customers, new partners...
Network infrastructure - "I'm not always connected"
- Collaboration assumes constant network access

Slide 39: Case Study Wind River: Initial deployment

Wind River started a large software project in spring 2000, involving around 100 engineers located in 7 offices on two continents
Evaluated two web based products to keep track of teams, schedules, milestones, meeting minutes, code reviews, and to store all project related documents:
- eRoom: Was in use by merged company ISI
- TWiki: Was in use by acquired company TakeFive
Decided for TWiki because it was more flexible and configurable then eRoom, even though eRoom had a more polished UI and more out-of-box applications

Slide 40: Case Study Wind River: Build and Coach

Initial time was spent to compile the requirements with key stakeholders, and to build the content structure
Gave virtual trainings for each office on collaboration, with focus more on "pros and cons of e-mail, webmaster maintained Intranets, and TWiki based collaboration", and "why it pays off using online collaboration"
Coached employees by monitoring content and sending "collaboration hints"

Slide 41: Case Study Wind River: Growing Up

Other groups within the company started using TWiki after seeing how projects can be managed in TWiki
A big push in TWiki usage happened after the Corporate Council started using TWiki to document their initiatives, metrics and processes
Several skins have been created in the familiar Wind River Intranet look
Large deployment:
- 1200 registered users
- 100 webs, 26K pages
- 133K actions / month
- 11K updates / month