Four wiki implementation take-aways

Nathan Wallace posts a great case study on creating a wiki intranet at Janssen-Cilag. The approach is refreshingly common-sense. My main take-aways:

• Pre-implementation conversations are a great way to create excitement and obtain personal commitment to maintain content. Also helpful: sharing articles that give a glimpse into the possibilities.
• Use the “social force control” argument when pitching a wiki: if social forces keep people from sending out weird email messages (which colleagues do not see), social forces will act more strongly to keep people on target in editing a wiki page. Also helpful: pointing out that changes captured in a wiki and monitored will be much easier to manage than the quiet behavioural departure from “norms” experienced by many companies.
• Use Wikipedia as an uber-known example. This provides a very positive point of reference for a new technology that is disconcertingly free-form.
• Offer ultralight training – Nathan was able to offer the necessary training in 5 minutes. After that, one-on-one coaching and a help section provide ongoing support. Also helpful: Begin with a basic help file, and as people have more questions, explain – then ask them to update the help section. People who are only just learning how to do something are much better equipped to explain to their peers than an “expert” is.

Nathan’s approach to content ownership and maintenance is remarkably simple and clear:

1. If someone isn’t willing to maintain a piece of content, it can’t be that important to the business.
2. We happily show people how to do things with the site, but we don’t do it for them.
3. Occasionally we highlight sections of the site on the home page, which is a great way to drive the defacto owners to clean it up a little.
4. We encourage people to have high expectations for content on the Intranet. If something is missing, please report it to the appropriate area of the business, or better still, add it for them.
5. The answer to verbal queries for many departments has become, “it’s on JCintra [the wiki/intranet]“. This reminds people to search first and ask later.
6. In the end, the quality of content in an area is a reflection on the defacto department owner, not the Intranet itself.

How to export LinkedIn connections to Facebook

Facebook looks tantalizing, very easy to populate with the content I am already producing elsewhere – but I was struggling to start using the “social” part of the latest social computing fad. This quick tutorial on importing LinkedIn connections to Facebook filled in this need:

We do know of an easy way to get your Linkedin Connections into Facebook in 2 minutes flat.

• Click on Contacts (after you have logged into your Linkedin account)
• Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on “export connections”
• Download the file as a CSV (Outlook) and save to your desktop
• Login to Facebook
• Click on Find Friends
• Click on “email Applications” and upload the saved CSV file

If you have any contacts on facebook from Linkedin, facebook will find them and display them and give you the option of inviting them to be your facebook friend; and send them an invite for you. Works like a champ! It will also invite all the other people that are not yet members of facebook from your Linkedin connections…

Source: Linkedin on Facebook?… At least there is a Linkedin Facebook Group
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