Virtual teams: Wikis and other collaboration tools

1
Virtual teams Wikis and othercollaboration
tools

• Valentin Todorov
• UNIDO
• v.todorov_at_unido.org
• (in collaboration with Diman Todorov, Cardiff
  University, UK)

MSIS 2009 (Oslo, 18-20 May 2009)
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Outline

• Introduction what is Wiki Web 2.0 technical
  aspects
• Comparison with similar technologies
• Purpose, strengths and limits of wikis
• Example scenarios
• Wiki engines
• Information retrieval in wikis
• Summary and conclusions

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What is a Wiki

• The simplest online database that could possibly
  work.
• --Ward Cunningham
• A wiki is a collection of Web pages designed to
  enable anyone with access to contribute or modify
  content, using a simplified mark-up language.
• --Wikipedia

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What is a Wiki

• A piece of server software that allows users to
  freely create and edit Web page content
• Any Web browser can be used.
• Wiki supports hyperlinks
• Has a simple text syntax for creating new pages
  and cross-links between internal pages on the
  fly.
• Wiki is considered a Web 2.0 technology

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What is Web 2.0

• Web 2.0 is a term often applied to a perceived
  ongoing transition of the World Wide Web from a
  collection of websites to a full-fledged
  computing platform serving web applications to
  end users. Ultimately Web 2.0 services are
  expected to replace desktop computing
  applications for many purposes.
• --Wikipedia
• Web 1.0 was all about connecting people. It was
  an interactive space, and I think Web 2.0 is of
  course a piece of jargon, nobody even knows what
  it means. If Web 2.0 for you is blogs and wikis,
  then that is people to people. But that was what
  the Web was supposed to be all along.
• -- Tim Berners-Lee

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What is Web 2.0

• Prominent examples for Web 2.0 applications
• flickr
• facebook
• del.ico.us.
• A commonly accepted set of characteristics of Web
  2.0
• participatory
• decentralized
• linked
• emergent

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Are you Web 2.0 compliant?
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Are you Web 2.0 compliant?

• http//web2.0validator.com/

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Technically speaking

• Special mark-up
• language
• Simple, but poses a significant entry barrier
• WYSIWYG content entry wiki toolbar

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Technically speaking(2)

• Highly dynamic content how to ensure quality of
  this content?
• A complete revision history
• Subscribe for notifications
• Major and minor changes
• Subscribe to an RSS feed

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Technically speaking(3)

• Revision history example

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Technically speaking(4)

• There are the following two categories of Wikis
• Wiki services or Wiki farms
• Free or fee based
• Self-hosted Wiki
• A variety of OS software
• Maximum control over the access and security
• Fulfilment of specific requirements
• - Necessity of own server
• - Necessity of technical and network experience
• - Longer start up time

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Technically speaking(5)

• How to choose a Wiki?
• How many users
• Are separate groups necessary
• Is interaction between groups necessary
• How secure should be the pages
• Public or private pages
• How skilled are the participants
• How important is the layout

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Other technologies mailing lists

• Emails are sent to a designated email address
• Mailing list refers to four things
• A list of email addresses,
• Subscribers the people receiving mail at those
  addresses,
• Publications (e-mail messages) sent to those
  addresses
• Reflector, which is a single e-mail address
• The receiver is a software which broadcasts
  received mails to all subscribers
• Two types of lists announcement list (or
  newsletter)and discussion list
• Mailing lists are private (unlike Wikis)
• Archived mailing lists provide functionality
  (like searching, indexing) to achieve tasks
  similar to the ones accomplished with Wikis

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Other technologies web forums

• Modern form of newsgroups
• Users can change their own content after it has
  been posted
• Archival of communication threads is intrinsic
• Forums are more communication centric (unlike
  Wikis which are document centric)
• Wikis provide better support for authoring,
  retrieval and interrelation of documents

From www.selfhtml.org
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Other technologies blogs

• The content is organised in reverse chronological
  order
• One or few authors
• Specific subject, personal information or
  combination of both
• An interactive comments section right below the
  article
• The comments can be written anonymously
• A good tradeoff between the strict access control
  in traditional content management systems and the
  liberal approach in wikis

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Other technologies blogs - Example

• Blog About Stats
• http//blogstats.wordpress.com/

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Other technologies blogs - Example
RSS
Searching
Today
Recent posts
Tag cloud
Recent comments
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Other technologies CMS

• CMS and Wiki have same features and
  functionalities, but different emphasis
• Wiki is more open to authorship
• In Wiki the support for authorisation and
  authentication is less sophisticated
• Wikis implement elaborate interpersonal conflict
  resolution mechanisms
• Free open source vs. expensive proprietary
  solution (exceptions like Joomla)
• http//www.cmsmatrix.com

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Other technologies MS SharePoint

• Used to build Intranet and Extranet portals and
  team sites
• Maturity in terms of user interface, database
  design, workflow and communication features
• Two platforms
• Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) - free with
  Windows 2003 Server
• Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS)
• Strong when type specific documents are conserned
  (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)
• SharePoint 2007 includes a wiki (low profile)
• Not necessary to compare SharePoint to Wiki but
  rather to other CMS

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Other technologies MS Lotus Notes

• Two products
• Louts Domino Server
• Lotus Notes
• Good interoperability with DB2, JSP and XML but
  poor third party support
• Some integration possible between Notes and wikis
• Preferred for hosting large reference documents
  or more formal documents within Intranet

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Wiki best practices

• A large user base is needed
• Work best when the organization structure is flat
• Willingness to share information worry for not
  receiving credit
• Conduct guidelines the five pillars of
  Wikipedia
• When introducing wikis often expectations are too
  high
• Although simple wikis need introduction
  tutorial or workshop
• Wikis are never finished this needs to be made
  clear from the beginning
• Some content should be present at the time of
  introduction

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Example scenarios Overview

• Building collaboratively a knowledge base (METIS
  wiki, R wiki, Ubuntu wiki)
• Collaborative software development
• Education, teaching, training
• Collaborative authoring (MSIS task force on
  software sharing, UNIDO INDSTAT 2 documentation)
• Intranet (UNIDO Intranet)

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Example scenarios METIS Wiki

• To help experts in statistical agencies develop
  metadata management systems and processes.
• Enterprise wiki Confluence hosted by UNECE
• Content is structured around Case study entries
• The case studies follow a predefined template
  with six topics
• Only authorised users can enter and edit content
• Easy upload from an Word document
• The complete case study document in PDF format is
  provided too

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Example scenarios METIS Wiki (2)
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Example scenarios R Wiki

• R is a system for statistical computation and
  graphics. It provides, among other things, a
  programming language, high-level graphics,
  interfaces to other languages and debugging
  facilities.
• -- R-core development team
• An (unfriendly) R-Help mailing list
• R Wiki launched in 2006
• Uses DokuWiki engine (targeted to software
  documentation) R-specific extensions
• Distinguish between
• large guides and books and
• short tips

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Example scenarios R Wiki (2)

• Statistics
• 2800 pages
• 460 pages with probably legitimate content (h2
  titles)
• 650 registered users

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Example scenarios Ubuntu Wiki

• Ubuntuusers http//www.ubuntuusers.de
• A portal (in German) provides everything
  necessary about Ubuntu and its derivatives
• Single entry point to
• Web forum ask questions
• Wiki read (and/or write) guides and
  explanations
• Blog publishes news from Ubuntuusers
• Clean structure build on a small number of top
  level categories download, installation,
  drivers, security, programming and so on.
• This structure can be further extended

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Example scenarios Collaborative software
development

• A small team of software developers working on a
  midrange project
• A Wiki is included in the development process
• The Wiki is not a part of the developed project
• Wiki is used to
• Share know-how about third party products
• Collect information about competing products
• Store meeting minutes
• To-do lists
• Wiki is inappropriate for technical documentation
  of the source code (too informal)

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Example scenarios UNIDO SDMX pilot project
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Example scenarios Collaborative authoring

• A small team of up to 10 members (possibly
  distributed geographically and organizationally)
  with the task of creating one or more documents
• Real time or asynchronously
• Software tools and technologies
• Supported file formats
• Text chat or conferencing
• Tracking changes and revisions
• RSS feeds and email updates
• Private and public sessions
• Real time co editing
• Possibility for adding comments
• Spell checker

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Example MSIS Task force on software sharing

• Cross-organizational workgroup with 10 members
• No face-to-face meeting was envisaged
• Evolution
• a) conventional mail exchange
• b) web forum
• c) wiki hosted by ISTAT
• Some initial structure was offered, which turned
  out to be sufficient
• Real time (teleconferences) and asynchronous
  editing
• Advantages
• free
• simple
• no problems with the organizational borders

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Example scenarios Intranet

• Quick and uncomplicated collecting of information
• Google, Nokia, Motorola
• Why (top ten reasons - from TWiki blog)?
• Slowing of the e-mail flood
• Up-to-date
• Open structure
• Powerful tools
• Flexibility
• Operability
• Transparency
• Security
• Low resource demand
• Cost savings

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Example scenarios UNIDO Intranet

• Launched in 2006 as a successor of the previous
  conventional HTML site
• Mediawiki with many optional modules
• Statistics
• 20000 pages
• 8000 pages with probably legitimate content
• 650 registered users
• 200 users actively contribute content
• Semantic MediaWiki (SMW) experimental
  installation

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Example scenarios UNIDO Intranet
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Wiki engines

• Wiki engine is the software enabling the wiki
  services
• An overwhelming list (by programming language and
  by name) is provided at http//c2.com/cgi/wiki?Wik
  iEngines
• A TopTen list (what criteria?) can be found at
  http//c2.com/cgi/wiki?TopTenWikiEngines
• MediaWiki, MoinWiki, TikiWiki, DokuWiki
• Help for choosing and comparing
  http//www.wikimatrix.org/

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Information retrieval and structure in Wiki

• Common critique hard to find information if
  unfamiliar with a specific wiki
• Structuring the wiki
• Useful structures are created by the user
• A particular structure can be created, suggested
  or enforced
• Structuring elements such as
• Namespaces
• Subpages
• Categories
• Different types of links
• Keywords search
• Templates
• Skins

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Semantic Wikis

• Follow the idea of semantic web as envisioned by
  Tim Berners Lee
• ?Enrich the WWW with machine processable
  information
• A Semantic Wiki extends a Wiki by adding Metadata
  in the form of semantic annotations to the
  Wiki-pages
• Semantic technologies RDF, OWL,Topic Maps, or
  Conceptual Graphs
• Semantic navigation
• in traditional Wiki - follow a link,
• in semantic Wiki - additional information on the
  relation the link describes.
• Semantic search e.g. SPARQL queries

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Semantic Wikis Example

• From http//semanticweb.org/wiki/Upcoming_events
• Query
• List all upcoming events (title, city, country,
  start and end date), sorted by end date

• ltask format"table" sort"end date" gt
• end dategtCURRENTYEAR-CURRENTMONTH- C
  URRENTDAY
• titleName
• has location cityCity
• has location countryCountry
• Start date
• End date
• lt/askgt

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Semantic Wikis Example
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Summary

• Simple and inexpensive (if not completely free)
• Ideal scenario a small group of people working
  intensively on related material
• Intranet for a moderately sized company or
  organization
• How well does it scale?
• How does it mach the organization culture?
• Although Wikis hold much potential, the norms for
  their use are still emergent
• Design guidelines needed

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References

• B. Leuf and W. Cunningham. The Wiki Way
  Collaboration and Sharing on the Internet,
  Addison-Wesley Professional, 2001
• B. Huettner, M. K. Brown, and C. James-Tanny.
  Managing Virtual Teams Getting the Most from
  Wikis, Blogs, and Other Collaborative Tools.
  Wordware Publishing, 2007.
• M. Krötzsch, D. Vrandecic, and M. Völkel.
  Wikipedia and the semantic web - the missing
  links. In Proceedings of Wikimania 2005 - The
  First International Wikimedia Conference.
  Wikimedia Foundation, 2005.
• D. Frongia and C. Vaccari. Introduzione al Web
  2.0 per la Statistica, Contributi ISTAT, 4, 2008.
• J. A. West and M. L. West. Using Wikis for Online
  Collaboration. John Wiley Sons, Inc., San
  Francisco, 2009