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Presentation given at Maryland Technology Day, Laurel, MD October 4, 2007
Citation preview
The What, Why and How of Collaboration
ToolsChristina K. Pikas
Maryland Technology DayOctober 4, 2007
Agenda
BackgroundReal goals, do you have them?Choosing among...Re-purpose existing software or buy new?Gaining participationEvaluating
First - Who's Here?
Special libraries? Government? Law firm? Corporate? Others?
Academic? Public? MLS or MIM students? Independent Information Professionals? Vendors? Non-library folks?
Background
Lots of information on blogs, wikis, etc. May not be from your setting Less information on how they interact
Complex information ecology Information sharing climate Existing infrastructure Types of information
Access to funding, servers, IT staffLegal and security concerns
The bottom line:We are never starting from
a blank slate!
Real Goals
It is ok to have the goal of demonstrating a technology or learning a technology to build
expertise in the library!
(…then what?)
Potential Goals
Expand the role of the library as a catalyst for information sharing and stewardship
Establish and maintain relationships and networks with customers
Market library services and programsLibrary as online space Internal library tool to support staff work
Choosing among...
BlogsWikisOnline bookmarkingE-mail discussion listsForums/message boardsSharePointNewsletters
Or picking from?
How do blogs really work?
In practice:Each contribution is individual and signedPosting is normally kept in a time line arrangement what information is best arranged this way? what information is better arranged by subject
or geographically or... ?
Blogs are reverse chronologically arranged collections of discrete posts...
Blogs +/-
They do well at capturing comments for each post
They are easy to keep up with using RSS*
Easy to link to specific posts
Collaborative at the macro level
Sometimes difficult to chase conversations
Need to post fairly regularly to maintain non-RSS readership
Personal vs. corporate voice
*note: many people use RSS readers that are web based - these won't be very useful for intranet feeds!
How do wikis really work?
It’s the read/write web, where users can edit without knowing HTML
Typically Keep revisions so that you can see what has
changed and revert to a previous version Have levels of access User contributions are generally merged into
the whole without specific attribution
Wikis are web pages that visitors can edit*...
*note: a meaningless definition, but you'll know one when you see it!
Wikis +/-
Great for consensus documents
Great for things that can change fast
Great for things that have an end goal
Not great for things that require voting or individual opinions
Not great for settling arguments
Other 2.0 technologies
What older technologies?
Forums and bulletin boards Really good for threaded conversations
E-mail lists Reach the most people Are familiar and are the workhorse
Newsletters Are great for less frequent, well thought-out
content
Newsletters
But… no money, no time, no IT?Maybe there’s something that has a new
blog or wiki plugin? SharePoint new versions Confluence wikis also do blogs
Is there a possibility of using a hosted service? Wordpress.com Pbwiki Google groups?
SharePointMany different versionsMany organizations have access to a
lightweight version that came with Microsoft web server software
Newest version has E-mail and RSS alerts Blogs and wikis Discussion boards
Jack of all trades and integrates with Office
Open Source
FreeServer and setup can be expensiveBut there are lots of choices and many books to help
Adoption
If you build it, will they come? (short answer: no!) Assimilation gap: many IT products are
purchased, then never deployed, or if deployed, are not widely adopted
Fashions for corporate software come and go If 1-10-90 applies on the web, what if your total
population is only 100-10,000? What does adoption look like for a library
supported collaboration tool?
Gaining Participation
Talk to the potential users before building Invite these users first and take their
suggestionsModel the content you would like to see Provide a scaffold or template Give examples
Nurture the content that does appear Encourage healthy Discourage unhealthy
Make it easy and low risk
Participation (continued)
Encourage the participantsMake it part of their work processMarket tirelessly (do try not to be too
annoying!) in other media - by e-mail, by posters, by
flyers, by handoutsAppear in search resultsDrop in to casual conversation :)
Legal and Security
For intranetsGood to have a disclaimer that information
still must go through standard public release procedures
Standard compliance rules applyCaretaking to ensure growth can also
head off potential problemsUse real names, link to identity
Legal (continued)
For internet toolsConsider requiring a password to editUse spam filters and comment moderation
to start or be ready to add fastMonitor for spam
Other notes
Be sure to brand the thing with your logoBe sure to link to the library web siteConnect your work to the libraryBe committed!
Contact Information
Christina K. Pikas, BS, MLS R.E. Gibson Library & Information Center
The Johns Hopkins UniversityApplied Physics Laboratory
Voice 443.778.4812 (Baltimore) 240.228.4812 (Washington)
E-mail [email protected]
Blog http://christinaslibraryrant.blogspot.com
ResourcesCrawford, W. (2007). Balanced libraries: thoughts on
continuity and change. [Morrisville, NC]: Lulu.
Nielsen, Jakob (2006, October 9). Participation Inequality: Encouraging More Users to Contribute. Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox. Retrieved October 2, 2007 from http://www.useit.com/alertbox/participation_inequality.html
Preece, J. (2000). Online communities: Designing usability, supporting sociability. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Wikipatterns. com (wonderful resource for wiki gardening!)
Sites Shown RecentArticles (APL internal only) The Gaming Zone:
http://thegamingzone.wordpress.com/ Business Blog:
http://www.library.ohiou.edu/subjects/businessblog/ Gibson wiki page (APL internal only) The Biz Wiki:
http://www.library.ohiou.edu/subjects/bizwiki/index.php/Main_Page
APL Scuttle (APL internal only) Lav Notes: online at
http://www.library.jhu.edu/about/news/lavnotes/index.html
SharePoint Services: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointtechnology/default.aspx