Don't fear the wiki

Wiki consultant Stewart Mader posted on his blog last week about an issue that seems so simple, yet one that becomes a major hindrance to wikis not taking off within a corproate environment: FEAR.

Fear can motivate or disable you. However, Stewart suggests ways to turn around someone's fear of contributing to a wiki. In fact, he says, contributing to a wiki can solidfy your value to an organization.

Once again, Stewart takes a very real issue and provides a simple answer.

"The more a person shares on the wiki, the more their value is known to the company," Stewart says. He adds that, of course, it's natural to be afraid of sharing your knowledge. But he explains that when people start to 'give away' or share what they know, their value to the company will be greater, and they will create more time to work on even more things, thereby expanding their knowledge base even further. So simple, yet so true.

You can't assume that your bosses know how much you know. And you can't keep all your knowledge (no matter how hard earned) to yourself, so that anyone in the company who wants to learn about 'your' topic needs to go to you. It's to YOUR ADVANTAGE to share. Your bosses will see for themselves when looking in the wiki how much you know, and your colleagues can search in your wiki pages for answers to their questions. this will put you in a better light with your bosses and free up your time to expand your base and grow within the organization. It's a win for the company and a win for you.

Don't fear the wiki. Take the leap.

Here's to 2009

The holiday season has quickly passed us by. It never seems to go on long enough, does it? The weather has been crazy, the economy is in flux; yet people took time out to appreciate family, friends and enjoy themselves. That's what I love about the holidays.

Now it's back to the grind. And there's much to be optimistic about -- a new year and new beginnings. But let me focus on business.

The Enterprise 2.0 marketplace is burgeoning. Early adopters are realizing returns on their investments, and more companies are catching on to the potential of wikis and other software solutions for collaboration and knowledge management challenges. Think these types of solutions aren't going mainstream? Charlie Rose of PBS aired an interview last week with Léo Apotheker, co-CEO and a member of the Executive Board of SAP AG, and Andrew Mcafee of the Technology and Operations Management Unit at Harvard Business School about enterprise software. I read about it first on Stewart Mader's blog.

The interview stressed about enterprise software solutions can help corporations manage fragmented technology systems, departments to better manage the company and lead the company to greater success. Oliver Marks of ZDnet also wrote about the interview. He wrote: "This TV appearance is a fascinating indication of how much more seriously Enterprise 2.0 is being taken in the current economic predicament." It's a really interesting interview and something we've been talking about recently as well. It's definitely worth a watch.

2009 has the potential to be a defining year for social software - a year in which wikis, blogs, and plugins, etc. will become part of mainstream technology conversations. And, it brings with it the promise of solving collaboration woes across industries.

I'll toast to that.