Implementing Wiki in Engineering Firm
Implementing Wiki in Engineering Firm
(OP)
Does anyone have experience with practical implementation of wiki software ("open knowledgebase that anybody can edit", see example at www.bridgeart.net/sample_wiki) in an engineering firm? Enterprise wikis seems to have a great potential for keeping information easily organized, but there seems to be large resistance to their implementation.





RE: Implementing Wiki in Engineering Firm
But, in a work environment, it becomes a burden, as well as potential threat to job security.
TTFN
RE: Implementing Wiki in Engineering Firm
A couple of other CAD users and I have made numerous posts to it with CAD tips, tricks and info.
I doubt if more than 2 or 3 other people have looked at the information we've posted.
Given the limited response I'm seriously reconsidering whether to post stuff at all.
RE: Implementing Wiki in Engineering Firm
I've been the only one to add any content in the last 10 months. The good thing is that when someone has a general question about the company or the engineering department I can point them to the intranet for the answer.
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RE: Implementing Wiki in Engineering Firm
Our "Engineer Knowledge Base" catches emails that go around the company's focus groups, as well as discussions from our CAD troubleticket system. They're all stored in a database and accessed by anyone on our intranet through a searchable web app. So when someone has a question or a problem, rather than trying to get a live person they can type it in and see if it's already been discussed within the company. The articles in the web interface can then also have comments added to them to further the discussion.
We've found this to be a simpler and more effective solution than a full blown wiki, since we design our systems for people with computer skill levels ranging from "barely able to check email" through very advanced users.
Hope this helps, always happy to answer questions.
Eric
RE: Implementing Wiki in Engineering Firm
A Wiki would have the advantage of being more formalized and therefore, more likely to encompass the context of the problem, the assumptions, the groundrules, etc. I would see a KB with relevant emails as an adjunct to a Wiki, rather than an alternate.
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RE: Implementing Wiki in Engineering Firm
We created the KB as a place where any user could get there with one click, type in a word, and see all discussions related to it. That way they didn't have to do a lot of topic browsing or digging around. I agree that a Wiki is much nicer and can be more effective, and the KB itself is a nice complement on the discussion side of it, but for the sake of this conversation I wanted to present a workable alternative that we'd used in place of a full-blown Wiki, since there are probably other companies out there whose users might not get as much as they could or should out of an internal Wiki, as KENAT stated. Being able to suck in messages from the focus groups allows the KB to build itself through the natural course of the company's technical conversations, rather than relying on additional time and effort from the users.
Eric
RE: Implementing Wiki in Engineering Firm
However, interest still seems kind of low.
This thread has given me an idea though.....
RE: Implementing Wiki in Engineering Firm
-ok
www.bridgeart.net
RE: Implementing Wiki in Engineering Firm
I a large firm it may work.
In a medium firm.....?
RE: Implementing Wiki in Engineering Firm
Unless a particular subject comes up in conversation, it's highly unlikely that electro-optics-oriented manager would know or care that I spent more than 10 years working on semiconductor electronics, unrelated to the electro-optics stuff I do now.
Likewise, we worked with someone for more than 5 years before finding out that he was a RF designer in a previous life.
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