- This book provides practical, proven advice for encouraging adoption of your wiki project and growing it into a useful collaboration tool or vibrant online community
- Gives wiki users a toolbox of thriving wiki patterns, which enable newcomers to avoid making common mistakes or fumbling around for the solutions to the same problems as their predecessors
- Explains the major stages of wiki adoption and explores patterns that apply to each stage
- Presents concrete, proven examples of techniques that have helped people grow vibrant collaborative communities and change the way they work for the better
- Reviews the overall process, including setting up initial content, encouraging people to contribute, dealing with disruptive elements, fixing typos and broken links, making sure pages are in their correct categories, and more
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Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
From the Back Cover
Plant and Grow a Successful Wiki.
A combination of a web page and a Word document, a wiki is a tool that's simple like email but powerful enough to reduce your cluttered inbox and busy meeting schedule. Wikipatterns will help you learn how to build a 21st-century tool for collaboration, whether your team is in the same office or split among offices around the world. Wikis can transform business collaboration, and you'll learn the ins and outs of making the most of this enduring collaboration tool. This book answers questions like:
- What is a wiki?
- How does an organization's wiki differ from Wikipedia?
- How do I make a case for using a wiki?
- What's the best way to get started?
- How do wikis change an organization's culture?
- How do wikis "fit" with other collaboration tools?
- What are the patterns of use and behavior that positively and negatively affect the wiki?
- How do I encourage participation and make the wiki "stick" as an idea and a tool?
About wikipatterns.com
Wikipatterns.com is a toolbox of ideas and strategies for anyone looking to build a successful wiki. It's also a wiki, which means you can help build the information based on your experiences!
About the Author
Stewart Mader is Wiki Evangelist for Atlassian Software Systems, makers of the award-winning and widely used Confluence wiki software. Stewart has worked with business, academic, and non-profit organizations to grow vibrant collaborative communities. He also publishes Blog on Wiki Patterns (www.ikiw.org), and recently wrote an online book on how the wiki is transforming education and research.
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More About the Author
Since 1999, Stewart Mader has helped organizations around the world harness the immense potential of the Web to connect people with engaging, valuable, and timely information. He has led the design and development of digital and social media programs including: Twitter strategy (organic and promoted), Communities of Practice content hubs and Enterprising Investor blog for CFA Institute, SAP Community Network content strategy for SAP, Wikipatterns.com and corporate blogs/word-of-mouth marketing for Atlassian Software. His team at Brown University was selected by Apple to lead one of the first six large-scale pilot tests of iTunes U to deliver learning materials to iOS devices. He is the author of two books: Wikipatterns (Wiley, 2008) and Using Wiki in Education (Lulu Press, 2006), and two documentary films: Skysight (2005) and Seeing the Scientific Light (2002).
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent book for leading the way to wiki adoption in the workplace...
January 11, 2008
Format:Paperback
Wikis are one of those "Web 2.0" applications that seem to be right on the edge of jumping into mainstream adoption. If your workplace is anything like mine, you've been spending more time lately answering the "what's a wiki" question than you have in the past. If you're starting to approach the point where you're ready to try one out in your organization, here's a good place to start your planning... WikiPatterns - A Practical Guide To Improving Productivity and Collaboration In Your Organization by Stewart Mader. Rather than a "do this, this, and this" instruction manual, Mader gets into the whys and whats of wiki adoption in the workplace, complete with case studies and real-life examples.
Table of Contents:
1. Grassroots is Best
Case Study: LeapFrog
2. Your Wiki Isn't (Necessarily) Wikipedia
Case Study: Johns Hopkins University
3. What's Five Minutes Really Worth?
Case Study: Sun Microsystems
4. 11 Steps to a Successful Wiki Pilot
Case Study: Red Ant
Case Study: A Conversation with a WikiChampion: Jude Higdon
5. Drive Large-Scale Adoption
Case Study: JavaPolis
Case Study: A Conversation with a WikiChampion: Jeff Calado
6. Prevent (or Minimize) Obstacles
Case Study: Kerrydale Street
7. Inspirational Bull****
Case Study: Constitution Day
Case Study: Peter Higgs: Using a Wiki in Research
Appendix - Questions and Answers
Index
Stewart Mader is the Wiki Evangelist for Atlassian Software, who also happens to be the creator of Confluence, an enterprise Wiki software package. But don't let that little bit of disclosure put you off. He is a well-known personality in the wiki community, and he's done the evangelism gig with many a company and organization prior to joining Atlassian. As such, the material is pretty vendor-neutral in terms of what you should and shouldn't be doing. You don't have to worry about sitting through a long sales pitch.
The book is designed to be used in conjunction with the website [...]. That site lists and explores a number of "patterns" and "anti-patterns" that come into play when launching and running a wiki site. Furthermore, it's split up into people and adoption issues. So as you're reading through the book, you'll see references (especially in the case studies) to patterns and anti-patterns that influenced the successes and difficulties of many of the projects. As the wikipatterns concepts are still evolving, the case studies didn't necessarily set out to follow and implement a certain set of behaviors. Quite often, the patterns are seen only in hindsight. But you have the benefit of being able to observe the patterns at work before you get started on your own project. This should help increase your odds of success at the start, or at least give you a clue as to what might be going wrong before it gets too messy to correct.
I personally am at the point where this information is *exactly* what I need at work. We've got a number of people who are ready to start a wiki pilot project, and the only reason I've put it off is due to some other higher-priority projects. But armed with Mader's wisdom, I think I'll have a much better chance of pulling off a successful pilot. I also saw some great ideas for taking the DominoWiki OpenNTF project and extending it (like with page templates) to make the software even more useful and easy to implement.
If you simply want to roll out a wiki for your own use, you'll probably see most of this information as overkill. But if you want to help lead the way to wiki adoption at your company, you could consider this the "teacher's guide" edition of the textbook. Not only will it ground you in the cultural aspects of wiki adoption, but it will establish you as the "go-to" person when it comes to this particular branch of the collaboration software tree.
Table of Contents:
1. Grassroots is Best
Case Study: LeapFrog
2. Your Wiki Isn't (Necessarily) Wikipedia
Case Study: Johns Hopkins University
3. What's Five Minutes Really Worth?
Case Study: Sun Microsystems
4. 11 Steps to a Successful Wiki Pilot
Case Study: Red Ant
Case Study: A Conversation with a WikiChampion: Jude Higdon
5. Drive Large-Scale Adoption
Case Study: JavaPolis
Case Study: A Conversation with a WikiChampion: Jeff Calado
6. Prevent (or Minimize) Obstacles
Case Study: Kerrydale Street
7. Inspirational Bull****
Case Study: Constitution Day
Case Study: Peter Higgs: Using a Wiki in Research
Appendix - Questions and Answers
Index
Stewart Mader is the Wiki Evangelist for Atlassian Software, who also happens to be the creator of Confluence, an enterprise Wiki software package. But don't let that little bit of disclosure put you off. He is a well-known personality in the wiki community, and he's done the evangelism gig with many a company and organization prior to joining Atlassian. As such, the material is pretty vendor-neutral in terms of what you should and shouldn't be doing. You don't have to worry about sitting through a long sales pitch.
The book is designed to be used in conjunction with the website [...]. That site lists and explores a number of "patterns" and "anti-patterns" that come into play when launching and running a wiki site. Furthermore, it's split up into people and adoption issues. So as you're reading through the book, you'll see references (especially in the case studies) to patterns and anti-patterns that influenced the successes and difficulties of many of the projects. As the wikipatterns concepts are still evolving, the case studies didn't necessarily set out to follow and implement a certain set of behaviors. Quite often, the patterns are seen only in hindsight. But you have the benefit of being able to observe the patterns at work before you get started on your own project. This should help increase your odds of success at the start, or at least give you a clue as to what might be going wrong before it gets too messy to correct.
I personally am at the point where this information is *exactly* what I need at work. We've got a number of people who are ready to start a wiki pilot project, and the only reason I've put it off is due to some other higher-priority projects. But armed with Mader's wisdom, I think I'll have a much better chance of pulling off a successful pilot. I also saw some great ideas for taking the DominoWiki OpenNTF project and extending it (like with page templates) to make the software even more useful and easy to implement.
If you simply want to roll out a wiki for your own use, you'll probably see most of this information as overkill. But if you want to help lead the way to wiki adoption at your company, you could consider this the "teacher's guide" edition of the textbook. Not only will it ground you in the cultural aspects of wiki adoption, but it will establish you as the "go-to" person when it comes to this particular branch of the collaboration software tree.
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Wikipatterns is the best practical guide to understanding how to harness the potential powerful and transformative effects of a wiki that I have come across in paper-print or via web.
If you're looking for a techno-speak on the mechanics of physically setting up a wiki (i.e., coding, servers, etc), this book is not for you (I'm not a "tech" guy). If you're looking for a guide that outlays why one would want to create a wiki, the benefits to be gained by one, how to invest and rally your organization to supporting wiki, and case studies from organizations and companies that have done it - this is book if for you.
I'm in the process of setting up a wiki and this book helped me anticipate potential adoption challenges, and build my site to account for those. The advice this book gives on how to roll out a wiki, including how to reach out to and manage the participation of early adopters is very much worth reading. I read this book in one sitting.
If you're looking for a techno-speak on the mechanics of physically setting up a wiki (i.e., coding, servers, etc), this book is not for you (I'm not a "tech" guy). If you're looking for a guide that outlays why one would want to create a wiki, the benefits to be gained by one, how to invest and rally your organization to supporting wiki, and case studies from organizations and companies that have done it - this is book if for you.
I'm in the process of setting up a wiki and this book helped me anticipate potential adoption challenges, and build my site to account for those. The advice this book gives on how to roll out a wiki, including how to reach out to and manage the participation of early adopters is very much worth reading. I read this book in one sitting.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
It's far from an exciting book (it was great for helping me fall asleep at night), but it has valuable content. You can actually get the whole book online, since it was, naturally, written on a wiki -- in fact, you can contribute to the wiki. I recommend the website/wiki as a resource for all of involved with community management and wikis: [...]
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
A must read for anyone working on implementing a wiki knowledge base
I purchased Wikipatterns to learn about best practices in creating and promoting adoption of an internal knowledge base running on a wiki platform. Read more
Published 3 months ago by M. Prieto
5.0 out of 5 stars
Encouraging the Wiki Work Style
Wikipatterns is far more than a book about what a wiki is and how it can benefit your organization/community. Read more
Published on May 20, 2010 by Terri L. Griffith
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wiki are a behavioral challenge, not a technical challenge
I have an extended flirtation with wikis. I like the open concept of them, but I find that only about 10% of wiki projects ever really take off due to one important fact: wikis are... Read more
Published on June 21, 2009 by Deane Barker
5.0 out of 5 stars
Your Wiki is Not Wikipedia
Wikipatterns doesn't get too geeky and talks about how real organizations are using wikis to solve real problems. Read more
Published on June 11, 2009 by William Arconati
1.0 out of 5 stars
threw the book across the room in frustration
First, this is not a book about wikipatterns. The names of alleged wiki design patterns from a website are bandied about, but there is no discussion here about the patterns, what... Read more
Published on November 26, 2008 by Ari Davidow
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good Concept
Wikipatterns is a good book, but not a great one. It did help me clarify a lot of my doubt regarding the wiki technology and the book has a lot of case studies. Read more
Published on August 6, 2008 by A. Gandhi
1.0 out of 5 stars
No content
Don't bother buying this one; a minute skimming in the book store is all you need to extract what little content there is here. Read more
Published on July 28, 2008 by Orome
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wikipatterns
I thought this was a great book for understanding the power of Web 2.0 and use of Wiki's
Published on June 22, 2008 by Evan Hackel
2.0 out of 5 stars
Okay, for what it is
I'm disappointed. This book lacked the substance and depth that I expected. I was very excited to receive it, as I've been looking for a good book that details the hows and whys of... Read more
Published on June 13, 2008 by Justin
1.0 out of 5 stars
Read it in a bookstore
I wish I hadn't bought this on Amazon. My recommendation: take five minutes to flip through this book in a Borders or Barnes & Noble. That's all you'll need.
Published on April 14, 2008 by Daniel Croak
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