Topic added by RenateRoskeShelton (3NPL)
Organizations might do well to recognize that, in the hustle and bustle to implement strategies and systems, information values and information culture will always have a defining influence on how people share and use information. Quote from Choo et. al.(2006) (3OVH)
- see DanWendling contributions below Working with information: Information management and culture in a professional services organization. (3OU2)
WIKI Platforms for Collaboration: When Convenient Access and Ease-of-Use Are not Enough, UPA Presentation by RenateRoskeShelton and Lois Bangiolo, October 12, 2007 Washington, DC; Second Annual Usability Conference, see http://www.userfocus.org (3OU3)
KNOWN USABILITY Issues WITH WIKI's (3O8L)
- Relatively easy for newcomers: creating text content, uploading files and images (3O8M)
- Overall Site Content Orientation is difficult for a beginner when visiting an already active site (3O8N)
- '''General Lack of user help for where to go and what to see first. (3OVJ)
- Technology has removed the linear (temporal) dimension and seems to confront the user with Networked Semantic Space''' (3O9U)
- Navigating content to understand what is there appears challenging particularly, if there is little confidence or certainty about what one will find (3O9V)
Some meta-usability features for ease of use: (3O8R)
- Wiki members are trained in the basics of creating and text, uploading files, and restructuring content (3O9W)
- Wiki moderators pose specific questions and help organize content (3O8S)
- Reminder messages are sent via e-mail asking for group participation (3O8T)
- Informing messages are sent with site visitation statistics alluding to 'social' motivating impulses such as the grass is greener (3O8U)
Usability Features that specifically support group collaboration: tbd. (3O9Q)
Collaboration Measures: tbd. (3O9R)
- Ideal Wiki Persona (3OUY)
- Characteristics of an active Wiki collaborator tbd. (3O8P)
- Attributes FYI (from a Cultural Perspectives Questionnaire) with definitions: (Note: Attributes with three bullets below indicate strong orientations for collaborators) - [Tried to improve formatting here, Pls check SusanTurnbull 09/28/07] (3O8F)
- HARMONY in relation to the Environment versus SUBJUGATION - maintains a balance among the elements of the environment, including self (3O8I)
- COLLECTIVEextended group of people (3O8J)
- FUTURE timespan orientation (versus present and past)- believes that business and day-to-day decisions should be based on long-term future needs and factors (3O8K)
- What will a future knowledge worker - scientist - and Wiki Collaborator look like? * What skills must s/he possess? (3OV0)
- Are we considering the Civil Servant employee of the future? (3OVA)
With the increased use of wikis, blogs, podcasts, and other elements of Web 2.0 in use to disseminate knowledge, and with office collaboration moving from the boardroom to the desktop and mobile phone (Web services), the worker of the future must be ever-increasingly able to use technology. S/he must be a life-long learner, and able to quickly adapt to changes and thrive in an uncertain knowledge environment. As before, s/he must be able to work in harmony with geographically distributed co-workers, now even more important as communication increasingly moves online, removing the social cues that come from face-to-face communication. As the world and physical distance continues to shrink, s/he must be aware of the differences in culture as s/he collaborates online with those from many different countries of origin, disciplines and philosophical orientations. (3OV1)
High trait levels in harmony, collective orientation, and future thinking are important to success in a cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural collaboration project. (3O9C)
From: sharing experience & ideas on wiki use at NIH On Behalf Of Roske-Shelton, Renate (NIH/NLM) [C] Sent: Wednesday, August 29, 2007 1:40 PM To: WIKI-L@LIST.NIH.GOV Subject: Re: ColabWiki (3O8W)
"Besides the technology features and aspects of use, which still seem to be a major stumbling block for non-programmer users, and, aside from compliance and governance 'fit' issues related to administering and 'fertilizing' interagency collaboration, could we try our hand at determinining answers to the following questions: (3O9D)
- What are WIKI's NOT good for and WHY? (3O9E)
- How large is this WIKI-L universe? (3O9F)
- Does it represent all interested stakeholders? (3O9G)
- How many Agencies are represented/participating? (3O9H)
- Who knows this - how? (3O9I)
- Who of this Universe (the Wiki-L List serve) has actively participated in Wiki spaces by posting content, discussing topics, moderating/editing content (What percentage?) (3O9J)
- What makes and represents a successful WIKI project? (3O9K)
- Do interagency Wiki's create different forms of benefits from other forms of communication? (3O9L)
- What is the concrete benefit for individual users and their organizations? (Possible examples: improved status or reputation, makes problem solving easier, keeps people well informed and cutting edge, improves work process efficiencies?, etc.) (3O9M)
And from a more user-centric perspective: (3O9N)
- Is Wiki collaboration experience required in order to make informed decisions about WIKI's? If so, how many of us have experience with how many Wiki projects? (3O9O)
- What attributes does an ideal WIKI collaborator possess? (In order to fulfill the promise of the technology, i.e. bringing different perspectives to a group, with the potential for finding new and better solutions to problems!) (3O9P)
According to a recent article looking at the issue of "Cultural Dimensions" for cross-cultural management, the knowledge worker/scientist/wiki collaborator of the future must be ever-increasingly able to use technology. S/ He must be a life-long learner, and able to quickly adapt to changes, must be able to work in harmony with his/her co-workers, now even more important as communication moves online, where social cues are removed that would come from face-to-face communication. S/he must be aware of the differences in culture as s/he collaborates online with those from many different countries. - How adept as a group are we at these? (3O8E)
DanWendling contributed the following great find detailing further 'traits' (Sent: Thursday, September 27, 2007 10:04AM To: WIKI-L@LIST.NIH.GOV (3OTB)
Leland Scott said: (3OTZ)
- "...Groups that are making active use of the wiki are seeing its benefits, while others either don't know about it or are suspicious of it ... organizational culture ... sharing information rather than hoarding it ... used to not letting others know what they're doing ... the wiki concept seems totally obvious and intuitive to some folks, but to many it's still quite foreign ..." (3OU0)
- "Six information behaviors and values that affect information use outcomes the most in professional service settings" is based on Marchand and others: (3OT4)
- Integrity, (3OT5)
- Transparency, (3OT6)
- Sharing, (3OT7)
- Proactiveness, (3OT8)
- Informality, and (3OT9)
- Control. (3OTA)
23 questions that may help determine the success of information sharing within an organization (not wiki-specific). It is one of the surveys described in Choo and others-2006, based on work by Marchand and others-2001 (citations below) They used a Likert Scale (1 is strongly agree, 5 is strongly disagree). (3OST)
The '6 information behaviors and values that affect information use outcomes the most' is based on Marchand and others: Integrity, Transparency, Sharing, Proactiveness, Informality, and Control. (3OSV)
- Integrity (reverse-coded) (3OTC)
- 1 Employees know what to do but not the ultimate goal of their activity. (3OTD)
- 2 Among the people I work with regularly, it is common to distribute information to justify decisions already made. (3OTE)
- 3 Among the people I work with regularly, it is normal for individuals to keep information to themselves. (3OTF)
- 4 Among the people I work with regularly, it is normal to leverage information for personal advantage. (3OSW)
- Transparency (3OTG)
- Sharing (3OTJ)
- 8 I often exchange information with the people with whom I work regularly. (3OTK)
- 9 I often exchange information with people outside of my regular work unit but within my organization. (3OTL)
- 10 In my work unit, I am a person that people come to often for information. (3OTM)
- 11 I often exchange information with citizens, customers, or clients outside my organization. (3OTN)
- 12 I often exchange information with partner organizations. (3OSY)
- Proactiveness (3OTO)
- 13 I actively seek out relevant information on changes and trends going on outside my organization. (3OTP)
- 14 I use information to respond to changes and developments going on outside my organization. (3OTQ)
- 15 I use information to create or enhance my organization's products, services, and processes. (3OSZ)
- Informality (3OTR)
- 16 I trust informal information sources (e.g. colleagues) more than I trust formal sources (e.g. memos, reports). (3OTS)
- 17 I use informal information sources (e.g. colleagues) extensively even though formal sources (e.g. memos, reports) exist and are credible. (3OTT)
- 18 I use informal information sources (e.g. colleagues) to verify and improve the quality of formal information sources (e.g. memos, reports). (3OT0)
- Control (3OTU)
- 19 I receive information about the performance of my organization. (3OTV)
- 20 My knowledge of organizational performance influences my work. (3OTW)
- 21 In my organization, information is essential to organizational performance. (3OTX)
- 22 Information in my organization is distributed on a 'need to know' basis. (3OTY)
- 23 Employees know what to do but not the ultimate goal of their activity. (3OT1)
This is one instrument from: Choo, C.W., Furness, C., Paquette, S., Van Den Berg, H., Detlor, B., Bergeron, P., Heaton, L. Working with information: Information management and culture in a professional services organization (2006) Journal of Information Science, 32 (6), pp. 491-510. (3OV2)
The 6 critical factors are from: D. Marchand, W. Kettinger and J. Rollins, Information Orientation: the Link to Business Performance. (Oxford University Press, New York, 2001). (3OT3)