Wikis for Collaboration and Knowledge Management (original) (raw)
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Wikis as knowledge management systems: issues and challenges
Journal of Systems and Information Technology, 2013
Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to identify and examine the major issues and challenges that impact the implementation of wikis as KMS. Wikis have been referred to as next generation KMS, providing an alternative to traditional knowledge management systems by addressing many of their limitations. However, research shows that there are cases where wikis have failed to achieve this potential. Further research on the range of issues and challenges surrounding the implementation of wikis in the corporate environment is required in order to enable organizations manage them more effectively and reap maximum benefits. Design/methodology/approach -This paper begins by providing a review of previously published empirical studies on wiki deployment in organizations. The disparate discussions are then synthesised by identifying the major issues and challenges in wiki implementation. Findings -Six major issues and challenges are identified including lack of a clear purpose for the wiki, wiki usability, integrating wikis into established work practices, social issues, role of management and organizational culture that supports knowledge sharing and collaboration. Originality/value -It is posited that in order for organizations to successfully implement wikis, it is necessary to first understand the issues and challenges surrounding wiki implementation. This paper contributes to practice by identifying the key issues and challenges in the implementation of wikis and suggesting strategies for using wikis to manage knowledge effectively. Building on this review, we critically analyse the findings and propose a model for the implementation of wikis which addresses these issues and identifies research areas that further need to be investigated.
Principles and Good Practices for Using Wikis within Organizations
2017
This chapter discusses the basic properties of corporate Wikis that make them an effective learning and knowledge management tool. Wikis offer a user-friendly environment that enhances informal knowledge sharing and the collaborative creation of new knowledge. Enterprise-wide adoption of Wikis promotes the reuse of existing know-hows and prevents employee re-invention of the wheel. Four cases of successful implementations of Wikis in large, hi-tech global organizations are described in detail including their goals, design considerations, implementation and actual use for formal and informal knowledge creation and sharing. The adoption and long-term sustainability of Wikis is attributed to perceived business outcomes by managers and to perceived usefulness and ease of use by individual contributors and users. Good practices based on one or more of these use-cases can provide practical guidance to organizations that wish to use a Wiki for KM purposes.
Wikis in enterprise settings: A survey
2012
The wiki technology is increasingly being used in corporate environments to facilitate a broad range of tasks. This survey examines the use of wikis on a variety of organizational tasks that include the codification of explicit and tacit organizational knowledge and the formulation of corporate communities of practice, as well as more specific processes such as the collaborative information systems development, the interactions of the enterprise with third parties, management activities and organizational response in crisis situations. For each one of the aforementioned corporate functions, the study examines the findings of related research literature to highlight the advantages and concerns raised by the wiki usage and to identify specific solutions addressing them. Finally, based on the above findings, the study discusses various aspects of the wiki usage in the enterprise and identifies trends and future research directions on the field.
Wiki Collaboration in Organizations: An Exploratory Study
The use of social media technologies in organizations has introduced novel ways of collaboration, communication, and knowledge sharing. In this respect, the present study is concerned with examining the use of one type of social media, the wiki technology, by members of several professional communities of practice to collaborate and share knowledge with each other. As such, it seeks to identify and understand the factors that influence their use of the wiki at a large multinational organization. To this end we used an interpretive exploratory case study which included 12 in-depth interviews with senior employees and managers as primary sources of data. Additional data was obtained during two field visits at the organization through observation of the wiki, field notes, and organizational documents. The study concludes with rich insights into the dual impact of the openness of wiki collaboration as well as the manner and value of using the wiki for knowledge collaboration and sharing at the workplace.
Wiki-based community collaboration in organizations
2011
Social media technologies are increasingly used within organizational settings. Particularly, organizations continue to adopt and use wikis for enabling collaboration among their professional communities of practice. At this respect, the current paper reports results from an interpretive case study focusing on the use of a wiki for knowledge collaboration and sharing at a large multinational organization. It examines how the wiki is used by members of several professional communities of practice through interviews, observations, field studies, and documents. It concludes by showing that the openness of the wiki has a dual impact on wiki collaboration and also discusses how the wiki might serve as both an enabler and inhibitor for community and knowledge collaboration.
Introduction of a Wiki in an Enterprise: Motives and Challenges
Among the tools available to implement the collaborative production of knowledge in organizations, the use of wikis has been gaining momentum and showing a low-cost and high efficiency. However, some difficulties still arise when attempting to introduce this kind of technology in an organization. In addition to technological limitations, the cultural issues inherent in companies can also origin problems and promising projects can be abandoned without achieving all the objectives planned. In this work, we study the motives, challenges as well as the more common problems that appear during the wiki implantation process in an organization and the purposed solutions on the literature. The main objective is to identify forms for the wiki to become a tool that everyone can use in the organization and identify the best practices related, so that the project of creating a functional wiki for an organization can aspire to befall a success and not simply abandoned.
A theoretical framework of collaborative knowledge building with wikis
Proceedings of the 8th iternational conference on Computer supported collaborative learning - CSCL'07, 2007
Wikis provide new possibilities for collaborative knowledge building with artifacts. This paper presents a theoretical framework for describing and understanding the processes which lead to collaborative knowledge building. The model borrows from the systemic approach of Luhmann as well as from Piaget's theory of equilibration. It describes people's learning activities as processes of externalization and internalization. Individual learning happens through internal processes of assimilation and accommodation, whereas changes in a wiki's information space are due to activities of external assimilation and external accommodation. All these equilibration activities are caused by subjectively perceived differences between an individuals' knowledge space and the wiki's information space. Differences of medium level are considered to cause cognitive conflicts which activate the described processes of equilibration.
Many organizations today adopt social software such as wikis, weblogs, and social networking services. The wiki-typical simplicity that characterizes the collective editing of articles and the huge growth observed in the Wikipedia model were the main advantages that motivated organizations’ implementation of wikis. However, it is unclear how employees’ perceptions of wiki’s affordances, as a voluntary, open, and flexible technology, facilitates or inhibits wiki use in organizations. In order to gain insight into the potential barriers to wiki adoption in the workplace, this exploratory study, conducted in a high-tech organization where people can choose whether to change routines, technologies, or both, examined employees’ varied perceptions about wiki software affordances and the changes in routine that it entails. Guided by Leonardi’s theory of human and material imbrication, 1032 comments to four open-ended questions were analyzed. The coding processes revealed that users could b...
Organizational wiki as a knowledge management tool
2010
Knowledge management has an increasing importance in organizations. Not only as a way to capture knowledge, but also to allow the incorporation of knowledge in products and services provided. Wikis are finding their way into organizational departments serving as collaborative tools for knowledge creation.