Wikis and Blogs: When, Why, and How to Use Them
Leslie O’Flahavan, E-WRITEAdministrative Office of the US CourtsWashington, DCSeptember 4, 2008
©E-WRITE, 2008
Presentation overview
• What wikis and blogs are and how they work
• Why wikis and blogs are such a popular way to publish content online
• How a wiki or blog could help your agency• How to manage some of the liabilities of
wikis and blogs• A little bit about social networking…if time
allows
©E-WRITE, 2008
Presentation schedule
• Start and 9 a.m. EST
• End at 1 p.m.
• Have a 15-minute break at about 11 a.m.
• Participate in activities throughout
Part 1: Not all wikis are encyclopedias
©E-WRITE, 2008
What is a wiki?
“A wiki’s just like a web site, only you can edit it.”
©E-WRITE, 2008
What is a wiki?
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia“A wiki is a website that allows visitors to add, remove, edit and change content, typically without the need for registration. It also allows for linking among any number of pages. This ease of interaction and operation makes a wiki an effective tool for mass collaborative authoring. The term wiki can also refer to the collaborative software itself (wiki engine) that facilitates the operation of such a site, or to certain specific wiki sites, including the computer science site (the original wiki) WikiWikiWeb and online encyclopedias such as Wikipedia.”
Wikipedia: the most familiar wiki example
©E-WRITE, 2008
Wikipedia Main Page
©E-WRITE, 2008
Wikipedia: C&O Canal page
©E-WRITE, 2008
C&O Canal Discussion page
©E-WRITE, 2008
C&O Canal Discussion page
©E-WRITE, 2008
C&O Canal Editing page
©E-WRITE, 2008
C&O Canal Revision History page
Discuss: How might a wiki solve your department’s own e-mail-related communication problem?
How do a wiki and web site differ?
©E-WRITE, 2008
National Park Service’s C&O Canal site
©E-WRITE, 2008
C&O Canal Association’s site
©E-WRITE, 2008
What kinds of wikis does this presentation cover?
• Federal, state, local
• Project or task wikis:– Project Communication – Application Support – Research– Product Planning – Customer Service
Some wiki samples …
©E-WRITE, 2008
Shrink and Grow: “This wiki acts as a
design doc for the game…”
©E-WRITE, 2008
wikiHow: “The How-to Manual Anyone Can Write Or Edit”
©E-WRITE, 2008
NCI caBIG
©E-WRITE, 2008
National Alliance for Medical Image Computing wiki
©E-WRITE, 2008
US Court of Appeals – Seventh Circuit
©E-WRITE, 2008
Article on 7th Circuit’s wiki
©E-WRITE, 2008
Argonne National Lab’s SEED Project Wiki
©E-WRITE, 2008
The AAA Wiki …
• “Welcome to the AAA Wiki - created to coordinate the Assembly, Alignment and Annotation of the now 12 sequenced Drosophila genomes.”
©E-WRITE, 2008
MassGIS Geospatial Web Services project wiki
©E-WRITE, 2008
“…caGrid provides the core enabling infrastructure necessary to compose the Grid of caBIG™”
©E-WRITE, 2008
Intellipedia
©E-WRITE, 2008
The “hall of mirrors” wiki: a presentation by Janel Brennan-Tillmann, UMD Coord. of Foreign Lang. Instructional Technology
©E-WRITE, 2008
Why are wikis so popular?
• Anyone can write or edit
• Outside the normal permissions and approval process for web content
• Encourage interaction
• Easy to learn
• User-defined life span
©E-WRITE, 2008
Wikis vs. Web sites
Wikis Shared Traits Web Sites• Authored collaboratively• Little to no graphic
design• Foster dialogue or
conversation• Socially mediated• Content author in charge
of content over time
• Relevant • Useful• Correct• Alive• Updated regularly• Read
• Require permission to publish
• Mediated by experts• Transactional• Governed by workflow or
publishing cycle• Graphic design conveys
content organization to user
• Staffed by professionals with a range of skills: designers, developers, content types
• Judged by outcomes
©E-WRITE, 2008
Edit-before-publish vs. Edit-after-publish
“Something that’s 80% accurate, on time, and shareable is better than something that is too much, perfectly formatted, too late, and over-classified.”
Chris Rasmussen, Knowledge Management Officer, Intellipedia, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency,
Department of Defense
©E-WRITE, 2008
Discuss
• What are the risks involved in launching a wiki for your department or court?
• What kinds of policies or guidelines would you need to have in place to offset the risks?
©E-WRITE, 2008
Why do you need wiki writing guidelines?• Organic growth of content can cause
many communication problems
• Producing valuable content of any type requires reviewing and editing
• Wiki users search vs. navigate, thus putting extra pressure on words
©E-WRITE, 2008
What should the wiki writing guidelines cover?
• How to organize content
• How to make content easy to read
• How to write as a wiki citizen
©E-WRITE, 2008
Guidelines on writing to organize
• How to name pages– Use concrete descriptive words; use the most commonly
searched terms: not ID but Social Security Number or Passport – Strive for names you can use in a sentence: not hips –
replacement surgery but hip replacement surgery– Provide guidance on caps, numbers, special characters– Give a name that will last over time: not Proposal – Final Version– Avoid beginning with articles: not The Interagency Agreements
Team– Develop naming guidelines for different types of pages/articles
• How (or whether) to group pages
©E-WRITE, 2008
Clear naming at Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki
©E-WRITE, 2008
HRE Wiki: Naming ProblemHREwiki • Home • Ready-to-use resources • Resources in development • Images • New topics • Projects • Useful websites
http://hrewiki.pbwiki.com/Featured resources• the Univeral Declaration of Human Right
s
• Nepal • death Penalty - teaching materials • Discrimination • Voices of people affected by human right
s abuses
• Ideas for HRE
Using this wiki
• Request a password
• Writing for this wiki
• Developing this wiki
• 'How to'
• Reporting problems
• Reproducing content
• Terms of Use
• Disclaimer
• About
©E-WRITE, 2008
Guidelines on writing readable wiki content• Headings• Vertical lists• Links (no click here)• Conciseness • Tone• Mechanical correctness
– Spelling– Punctuation– Grammar– Abbreviations– Dates
©E-WRITE, 2008
Wiki wall of words …
©E-WRITE, 2008
Bulleted wiki article: Easy to scan or read?
Developing a wiki that contains few content types requires explicit writing guidance.
©E-WRITE, 2008
PolicyOptions Wiki: Lots of guidance about writing issue briefs
©E-WRITE, 2008
Guidelines on writing as a wiki citizen
• Use your real name
• Write objectively (?)
• Comment considerately
• Contribute original content
• Avoid slang
• Explain edits in “Comments” section
©E-WRITE, 2008
Wiki software options
• MediaWiki – www.mediawiki.org• Tikiwiki - www.tikiwiki.org • PBwiki - http://pbwiki.com/• Wikipedia’s article “Comparison of wiki software” at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_wiki_software
©E-WRITE, 2008
Wiki writing guidelines
• ColabWiki: Wiki Style Guide• IBM’s
Redwiki Writing Guidelines and Etiquette• wikiHow’s Writer’s Guide• BattleMaster wiki Style Guide• LinuxQuestions.org’s
LQWiki:Manual of Style • MuppetWiki
Building a successful wiki community
©E-WRITE, 2008
Wiki resources
• NIH Wiki Fair – February 28, 2007• Wiki Home Page at COLAB, the collaborative
work environment: “Hosted by GSA Intergovernmental Solutions”
• “Which Wiki is Right for You?” in School Library Journal, May 1, 2007
Part 2: Blogs
©E-WRITE, 2008
What is a blog?
“A weblog, which is usually shortened to blog, is a website where regular entries are made (such as in a journal or diary) and presented in reverse chronological order. Blogs often offer commentary or news on a particular subject, such as technology, politics, or local news… A…blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic.
©E-WRITE, 2008
How is a blog different from a website?
• Easy – to set up– to update– to organize and archive
• Interactive
• Personal—Individual POV, not agency
©E-WRITE, 2008
How do blogs work?
• How do you publish a blog?
• How do you read a blog?
©E-WRITE, 2008
How do you publish a blog?
• Use off-the-shelf, user-friendly software (blogware) to– Create new blog posts– Organize, archive and retrieve information
from old posts– Create links from your posts– Enable other bloggers to link back to a
specific post on your blog (Permalinks)– Let bloggers see who has viewed their posts
and commented (TrackBack)
©E-WRITE, 2008
How do you read a blog?
Subscribe to a blog with
• RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed
• Portal or browser based aggregators (GoogleReader)
• Web based aggregators (Bloglines, FeedReader)
• E-mail updates
©E-WRITE, 2008
Use a blog aggregator
©E-WRITE, 2008
Get blog posts by e-mail
©E-WRITE, 2008
Who blogs?
“In April 2007, blog search and measurement firm Technorati was tracking over 70 million blogs and reported seeing about 120,000 new blogs created each day. That's 1.4 blogs every second.” (webcontent.gov)
©E-WRITE, 2008
Who blogs in the Federal government?
©E-WRITE, 2008
Why do Federal agencies blog?
• Communicate with the public
• Communicate internally
Blogging “puts a human face on government [and] makes government more open.”
--Bev Godwin, USA.gov
©E-WRITE, 2008
• Humanize your agency
• Create a dialogue
• Get feedback
• Keep public updated
• Improve visibility—search engine placement
A new way to communicate with the public
©E-WRITE, 2008
• Share information
• Create community agency-wide, nationwide or worldwide
A new way to communicate within the agency
©E-WRITE, 2008
Before starting a blog, consider
• What’s your purpose?
• Who will write the blog?
• Will you allow comments?
• What’s your approval process?
• What legal issues should you address?
©E-WRITE, 2008
Disseminate Information: DC Public Safety Blog
©E-WRITE, 2008
Support a project: The Big Read
©E-WRITE, 2008
Add Value: Eye Level
©E-WRITE, 2008
Customer interaction: TSA’s Evolution of Security
©E-WRITE, 2008
A 6-week special event blog: EPA
©E-WRITE, 2008
Personal Experience: Volunteer Journals
Discuss: How could a blog help your organization improve communication?
©E-WRITE, 2008
Who will write the blog?
“They’ve got to be authentic. You must be the author of your post—not your staff, not your secretary or administrative staff, and certainly not your campaign manager or consultant.”
--Christopher Barger, IBM blogging consultant
©E-WRITE, 2008
Director, Corps of Engineers
©E-WRITE, 2008
Director, CBO
©E-WRITE, 2008
Front-line employees
©E-WRITE, 2008
Will you allow comments?
• Most federal agencies allow comments
• Will you moderate or edit the comments?– Edit for grammar– Edit for content– Limit comments to specific issues
• What will you do with the comments—feedback?
©E-WRITE, 2008
Will you allow comments?
• Without comments, a blog is “just a glorified press release.”
--Mike Cornfield, professor, George Washington University
©E-WRITE, 2008
Enabling comments
©E-WRITE, 2008
The Corps-e-spondence comments policy
©E-WRITE, 2008
Evolution of Security comments policy
©E-WRITE, 2008
How will you use comments?
• Change policies or programs
• Get customer feedback
• Incorporate comments into your posts
©E-WRITE, 2008
Incorporate comments: Corps-e-spondence
©E-WRITE, 2008
The blog approval process?
• Outside formal clearance process
• Posts will need to be reviewed before they’re published
• Blogger + blog’s purpose + blog publication schedule
©E-WRITE, 2008
Legal issues
• Confidentiality– Does your organization have confidentially
guidelines for other types of communication?
• Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)
• Copyright
©E-WRITE, 2008
Establish and publish blog policiesIncorporate your decisions on into a written
blog policy
• Purpose
• Writers/contributors
• Comments policy
• Approvals process
• Legal Issues
©E-WRITE, 2008
Publish your blog policies: GSA GovGab
©E-WRITE, 2008
Resources
• Blogs from the U.S. Government http://www.usa.gov/Topics/Reference_Shelf/News/blog.shtml
• Blogs in Government, Bev Godwin, July, 2006 http://www.usa.gov/webcontent/documents/Blogs_in_Government_June_2006.pdf
• Webcontent.gov http://www.usa.gov/webcontent/technology/blogs.shtml
©E-WRITE, 2008
Managing the liabilities of wikis and blogs• Before publishing, identify the purpose of your
wiki or blog and measure the risk against that purpose
• Remember that wikis and blogs are publishing tools; we CAN manage publishing
• Develop guidelines for publishers/contributors and for users/readers
• Limit access• Learn from those who have gone before you!
©E-WRITE, 2008
Blog Scenario #1
• Your agency director wants each division head to write an internal blog.
• The director wants to review each blog post by each division head before it’s posted.
• “We speak with one voice and that voice is the voice of the director.”
©E-WRITE, 2008
Blog Scenario #2
• Due to changes in legislation, a post from March 2008 contains incorrect information.
©E-WRITE, 2008
Wiki scenario #1
• You launch a wiki, tell the team about it, set up passwords for all contributors, and post information on the wiki yourself.
• No one else contributes content or refers to the wiki.
©E-WRITE, 2008
Wiki scenario #2
• Your wiki is growing rapidly and some of the content is of “first draft” quality.
©E-WRITE, 2008
Wiki scenario #3:
• “Joe” writes an e-mail to “Sue.” His e-mail includes a well-written explanation of a complex process.
• Sue likes the e-mail so well that she publishes it to the department’s wiki without asking Joe’s permission.
Social Networking:Sharing, Rating, Connecting
©E-WRITE, 2008
Sharing: YouTube
©E-WRITE, 2008
Connecting: LinkedIn
©E-WRITE, 2008
LinkedIn: US Courts
©E-WRITE, 2008
Connecting: Facebook
©E-WRITE, 2008
Connecting: Twitter
©E-WRITE, 2008
Questions or comments?
Clare De Cleene Web Communications Manager
Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts
202-502-1182 (Direct Line)
202-502-2615 (Web Help Desk)
Leslie O’Flahavan
E-WRITE [email protected]
301-989-9583
