© 2008 IBM Corporation
Chris AlmondJanuary 2008
Tapping into the knowledge of IBM’ers worldwide to augment the value of IBM Redbooks material
2008 Pilot
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Attract communities of IBM subject matter experts by allowing them to take control of the content
and continually update and extend it over time.
Convert Redbooks into Intranet based Wikis
W3 = IBM Intranet – internal only access
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Potentials:1) Tap into Redbooks Wiki based grass
roots content development to provide more frequent/lower cost Redbook updates
2) Create an external instance of the same wiki: either static or filtered/moderated. Wiki based static HTML presentation would drastically increase quality of Google search results over existing PDF based content
External instance could provide feeds. Update notifications (RSS/ATOM) to the Redbook audience subscribers could drive big increase in overall ibm.com traffic via Redbooks channel
Surface the value viaibm.com Redbooks channel
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Reach vs Control
Internal WWW
Region of Potential Anarchy (RPA)
Reach
To
p D
ow
n
Co
ntro
l100% Anonymous: minimal/no controls
100% Managed: Full process oriented control
Wikipedia
Threshold: anonymous authoring access
TraditionalRedbook
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Project Phases
Investment:• Content conversion tools• Design• Deployment
Community• Engagement models & incentive• Governance patterns• Measurements• Evolution
Business Value• Internal – Social Computing ROI• Process – additional SME & content refresh source• External – Update frequency & engagement
Launch
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Content Conversion Tooling: High Level
Unstructured source Standards based conversion
Flexible input/output Re-usable components
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Fully Indexed – easily added to intranet search engines
Templated for familiar Intranet Look and Feel
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How do you convert large chunks of structured
content to a wiki?
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Reputation – what goes online stays onlineDerive SME relationships to content/topics
Feeding the “TR3 Virtuous Circle”:Tagging, Rating, Reputation, Recognition
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Patterns for Engaging Community
Field of Wiki Dreams
Build it and they will come?
Build to order
SME community expects delivery & are ready to take control
Entrainment
Convert the whole Redbook library – create intranet gravity: search landings & curiosity lead
to participation
Incent• TR3 virtuous Circle: Tagging,
Rating, Reputation, Recognition• Lead by sharing• Sales rep stub document – help
me now and you will be rewarded
To compliment our top-down innovation strategy IBM needs to provide internal transformation tools and technology that better facilitate bottom-up innovation
through self-organizing channels.Giving IBMers the Permission and Power to Innovate
Linda Sanford and Irving Wladawski-Berger, April 2006
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Community Engagement: Governance and Management
“To really leverage a wiki, the participantsneed to be in control of the content.
You have to give it over fully”
Who becomes the community leaders? (Hint - they already exist – in spades – Redbooks Wiki becomes their new sandbox)
Access control?– By default: wide open - in community we trust
– Earn access via welcome rituals?
– Knowledge community subscriptions? Wiki peer group “circle of acceptance”?
– Etc…
We have a learning experience ahead of us
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Measuring Business Value: Social Computing ROI
How do you measure it?
A new area of research – business value metrics in enterprise 2.0/social computing initiatives
Higher value & frequency of connections?– People to things (knowledge)
– People to people (links)
On what scale do you measure the value of increasing returns when tapping into organizational know-how?
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Externalizing Redbooks Wiki?
“I trust Redbooks. I do not trust wikis”
Maintaining the value and trust in the IBM Redbooks brand is vital