What Makes a Government Wiki Successful?
1. Relevance
· The wiki must meet a tangible business need. There are too many technology solutions that were created out of love for the technology rather than to address a critical need. However, a truly successful wiki strategy is built around a clear understanding of the intended user-base and the needs that the wiki will address.
· The wiki clearly communicates the benefits it offers to its users. People are busy, particularly within government. It is faster and easier to stick with current technology solutions, even if they aren’t perfect, rather than learn how to use a new technology. Therefore a successful wiki needs to clearly communicate the value it offers users to entice them to use it. This value must be communicated directly from the main page of the wiki and in subsequent pages.
2. Technology
· The wiki must operate at a reasonable speed. This is particularly critical for departments that operate in countries or regions with lower bandwidths. Slow response time is one of the fastest ways to lose a user base, so know your audience’s usage environment and test, test, test.
· The wiki technology must be reliable. Like anything in this world, if a technology doesn’t work consistently, users will develop mistrust and move on to something more reliable. Therefore a successful wiki strategy identified the technology support structure (both equipment and people) required to keep the wiki working reliably.
3. Content
· The wiki must have meaningful content. As previously mentioned, users are busy people. If the information housed on the wiki isn’t useful to them, they will turn elsewhere. One of the easiest ways to ensure the usefulness of content is to encourage users to create their own.
· Wiki content should come predominately from the users themselves. The main value of wiki technology is that anyone can add or edit content without being a web programmer. Therefore a valuable wiki can be tested based on the amount of user-generated content that has been uploaded to the wiki. Resist the urge to turn the wiki into a fancy single-source publishing tool. Rather encourage users to create value by creating their own content.
4. Usability
· Things on the wiki should be easy to find. Nothing is more frustrating than wasting time trying to find information. All wiki strategies should employ a clearly defined navigation strategy. It is recommended that the wiki use robust search technology and use a multidimensional navigation system.
· The wiki should be easy to use. Attracting users to a new type of technology is normally only successful if the technology is easy to use. Before selecting a wiki platform, wiki management should ensure that adding, editing, moving and deleting content is straight forward. Any additional features such as tagging, categorizing, mash-ups, blogging, discussion boards and instant messaging should be uncomplicated and intuitive.
Tags: departmental wikis, gov 2.0, government 2.0, government wiki, government wikis, web 2.0, wiki, wiki strategy