Discussion Group B2: Wiki Strategies to Support the Needs of the Institution
Issues
Based on your previous discussion and related points from the other discussion groups you should now seek to identify a Wiki strategy for your institution.
Possible strategies for providing Wiki services include:
- A large-scale enterprise Wiki service for use within your institution
- A distributed and decentralised approach, in which departments, ad hoc groups, individuals, etc. may choose their own preferred Wiki tools, which could be installed locally or use of free or licensed externally-hosted services.
- Use of Wiki functionality provided in other enterprise tools, such as VLEs, Blogs, etc.
- In-house development of a Wiki service.
Possible plugin processes
- Doing nothing, either because effort is limited and prioritisation is given to other areas or a view that Wikis are of marginal relevance to the institution.
We need to be clear about the requirements before we can determine the best approach.
Please address the following issues:
- What are the pros and cons of these approaches?
In-house - points of failure - possibly cheaper?
Hosted service to try the water before diving in - but control and flexibility may be lacking?
Multiple in-house - allows us to learn about different systems until a clear leader emerges.
- Which approach(es) best satisfy the user requirements you have identified?
May be determined by what you have bundled with something else (eg a VLE)
Based on your preferred approaches to the provision of a Wiki service:
- What potential problems and difficulties might you expect in the deployment of a Wiki service?
- What approaches would you recommend for the effective deployment and support for your preferred Wiki service?
- User control - do you deploy a Wiki with a two-tier "guest" and "editor" user category approach, or do you need finer gradations in users to control security and lock down certain areas?
- Visual appeal - do you deploy an off-the-shelf Wiki in its "native" appearance which may be familiar to users who've seen the Wiki software elsewhere, or do you need to put an institutional stamp on it? If so, how do you approach this ... do editors need any control over visual style?
Discussion Group B2: Notes
Would type of work determine what solution is adopted? Use of VLEs for instructional information (other than academic). Potential issues for external collaboration with VLE.
Support - we don't have the resources to support yet another institutional service. Organic nature - backup/archive.
Must have Buy-in, sustainable growth, good practice, capacity, migration.
User control - who is the gatekeeper. NOT IT! devolve rolls. Depends what it's for. What's the data? Keep user control fairly coarse - similar to other IT services. Impossible to monitor by policing.
Visual style - most institutions would want their own. How do we ensure accessibility of this user-generated content.
Exploiting The Potential Of Wikis