Engaged Learning

Wikis – Day 3 – Privacy & Adoption

Dec 2, 2009 Social Media & Network Challenge

Week 4: Wikis: Day 3

Photo by SashaW on Flickr

Before we jump in to the exercise, let’s talk privacy.  There is some information you obviously don’t want open to the public – from a work or personal standpoint.  To help with this, wikis usually have a privacy setting.  The Wetpaint wiki allows you to keep your pages private but allow others to approve specific others to collaborate.  This way you have full control over who sees and edits the information.  This is perfect for work or close knit subjects.  But, just because you put it out there for others to use does NOT mean that they will.

One of the biggest impediments to the usage of any of these tools that I found early on was duplication.  You MUST replace what they have been doing with what they can do.  For example, right now I am trying out a proof of concept as a replacement for a traditional mode of communicating.  There are two types of people who are in this proof of concept.  Those who have abandoned the old way of this particular type of communication and embraced the new way, and those who are trying to do both.  Of those in the latter category, this new way is not being adopted – they aren’t using it.  It is seen as “one more thing to do” and no one has time for that.  The key: REPLACE.  And be explicit about it.  For more information, read my series on adoption.

TO DO – Start a wiki document (Difficulty Level: EASY – Time: 10- minutes)

• Choose a topic from your brainstorming and start your wiki.
• If you want to keep it private, change the settings.
• Send an email to those who you want to take part in the wiki.  Tell them NOT to email you details but that all communication about this subject is on the wiki.
• Use your RSS reader to watch the feed and see when others update it.

Tags: social media challenge, wetpaint, Wiki