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The Division of Wiki Labor: Wikis in the Working World

The Division of Wiki Labor: Wikis in the Working World

by on July 15, 2011 in Wikis

It’s often been said that one of the best ways to learn a subject is to attempt to teach it to others.  Whereas a hazy, half-developed understanding of something might be good enough to allow you to squeak by on your own, to be able to teach a topic requires all-around mastery of the material. 

While the truth behind this statement is well documented, its translation into the world of the busy worker is not always so cut-and-dried.  Every year, the number of tools and processes that the average employee is required to have some level of expertise with increases, while the amount of time devoted to training decreases.  Those subject matter experts with the inclination to pass on their knowledge to others increasingly find that their avenues to do so are either blocked or shrinking rapidly.  The result for companies can be a situation where crucial corporate know-how becomes …

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The Freemium Three: Three Free Tools That Will Work Wonders For Your Next Training Project.

The Freemium Three: Three Free Tools That Will Work Wonders For Your Next Training Project.

by on January 19, 2011 in Informal Learning, LMS (Learning Management System), Project Management/Project Delivery, Reviews, social learning, Wikis

Like many of us, I don’t like spending money when it’s not necessary, and being a good project manager means being especially tight fisted with your client’s dime.  So, when budgets are tight and the dollars can’t be found for more expensive tools – here are three freemium products I’ve recently discovered that can help get your enterprise training project rolling on next-to-nothing.

 Bookwhen.com

  • This online registration system proved its worth a thousand times recently when we had to scratch plans for a learning management system (LMS) at the last minute, after the client had to pare back the budget on a series of instructor-led training classes being rolled out to 3000 employees at multiple locations.  Following some careful product reviews and some alpha-testing we settled on this system and never looked back.  It was easy to customize, easy for our client’s employees to use, and handled a number of changes

    • …

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If Wikis Work for National Security, They Can Work For the Rest of Us

If Wikis Work for National Security, They Can Work For the Rest of Us

by on December 13, 2010 in social learning, Wikis

Although most people don’t view US intelligence agencies as great examples of organizational effectiveness, I came across some encouraging evidence recently in the way some have begun to share information. While many large corporations still fear wikis for internal communication because they are “hard to control,” a number of intelligence agencies have been using a wiki tool – called Intellipedia – for several years.

Apparently, it’s working. Thomas Fingar, Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Analysis, describes how Intellipedia was used to create an article about how Iraqi insurgents were using chlorine in improvised explosive devices:

They developed it in a couple of days interacting in Intellipedia … No bureaucracy, no mother-may-I, no convening meetings. They did it and it came out pretty good. That’s going to continue to grow.

Some might confuse the use of wikis with sometimes controversial organizations like Wikileaks. It’s important to remember, though, …

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Using Wikis to Stop Brain Drain

by on February 23, 2010 in Wikis

In his December Training Magazine article Training in a Web 2.0 World: The Evolution of Distance Learning, Norm Willox, CEO of Critical Information Network, described the “brain drain” that today’s companies are experiencing as:

“Waves of craftsmen retiring, creating a void of skilled personnel and increasing operational risk for plants and facility operators. Not only are these organizations losing skilled workers, they are losing the institutional knowledge they rely on.   That knowledge has to be replaced and distributed to personnel in different geographic locations, which is where distance learning becomes a necessity.”

My experience is that when implemented and administered effectively, wikis can essentially serve as an institutional knowledge reservoir and stop the brain drain, or at least slow it to a trickle.

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