Redbooks Wiki

© 2008 IBM Corporation

Chris AlmondJanuary 2008

Tapping into the knowledge of IBM’ers worldwide to augment the value of IBM Redbooks material

2008 Pilot

2 © 2008 IBM Corporation

Attract communities of IBM subject matter experts by allowing them to take control of the content

and continually update and extend it over time.

Convert Redbooks into Intranet based Wikis

W3 = IBM Intranet – internal only access


Potentials:1) Tap into Redbooks Wiki based grass

roots content development to provide more frequent/lower cost Redbook updates

2) Create an external instance of the same wiki: either static or filtered/moderated. Wiki based static HTML presentation would drastically increase quality of Google search results over existing PDF based content

External instance could provide feeds. Update notifications (RSS/ATOM) to the Redbook audience subscribers could drive big increase in overall ibm.com traffic via Redbooks channel

Surface the value viaibm.com Redbooks channel


Reach vs Control

Internal WWW

Region of Potential Anarchy (RPA)

Reach

To

p D

ow

n

Co

ntro

l100% Anonymous: minimal/no controls

100% Managed: Full process oriented control

Wikipedia

Threshold: anonymous authoring access

TraditionalRedbook


Project Phases

Investment:• Content conversion tools• Design• Deployment

Community• Engagement models & incentive• Governance patterns• Measurements• Evolution

Business Value• Internal – Social Computing ROI• Process – additional SME & content refresh source• External – Update frequency & engagement

Launch


Content Conversion Tooling: High Level

Unstructured source Standards based conversion

Flexible input/output Re-usable components


Fully Indexed – easily added to intranet search engines

Templated for familiar Intranet Look and Feel


How do you convert large chunks of structured

content to a wiki?


Reputation – what goes online stays onlineDerive SME relationships to content/topics

Feeding the “TR3 Virtuous Circle”:Tagging, Rating, Reputation, Recognition


Patterns for Engaging Community

Field of Wiki Dreams

Build it and they will come?

Build to order

SME community expects delivery & are ready to take control

Entrainment

Convert the whole Redbook library – create intranet gravity: search landings & curiosity lead

to participation

Incent• TR3 virtuous Circle: Tagging,

Rating, Reputation, Recognition• Lead by sharing• Sales rep stub document – help

me now and you will be rewarded

To compliment our top-down innovation strategy IBM needs to provide internal transformation tools and technology that better facilitate bottom-up innovation

through self-organizing channels.Giving IBMers the Permission and Power to Innovate

Linda Sanford and Irving Wladawski-Berger, April 2006


Community Engagement: Governance and Management

“To really leverage a wiki, the participantsneed to be in control of the content.

You have to give it over fully”

Who becomes the community leaders? (Hint - they already exist – in spades – Redbooks Wiki becomes their new sandbox)

Access control?– By default: wide open - in community we trust

– Earn access via welcome rituals?

– Knowledge community subscriptions? Wiki peer group “circle of acceptance”?

– Etc…

We have a learning experience ahead of us


Measuring Business Value: Social Computing ROI

How do you measure it?

A new area of research – business value metrics in enterprise 2.0/social computing initiatives

Higher value & frequency of connections?– People to things (knowledge)

– People to people (links)

On what scale do you measure the value of increasing returns when tapping into organizational know-how?


Externalizing Redbooks Wiki?

“I trust Redbooks. I do not trust wikis”

Maintaining the value and trust in the IBM Redbooks brand is vital

Technology

Redbooks Wiki