wiki concierge services

“Wiki Concierge Service” means we’ll help you light some candles. Well...OK...not really. In fact, not at all, Except for the metaphorical idea that wikis are providing a revolutionary approach to creating community and facilitating project management online. And sparking the flame of creative ideas that will burn brightly through employees’ and customers’ minds for generations to come…

Right. So... enough with the glib marketing-speak.

what are wikis?

Wikis provide web users with the tools to create their own Web pages. Up until now, unless you could write code or use a design program, you had to hire a web master to create a new site, or even to implement simple changes to an existing web page. This process takes time, and you often get charged by the hour.

That all changes with a wiki. Control passes to the user/viewers’ hands. Users create pages, post pictures, and attach documents to unique pages that can be created on a hosted site, or behind a company’s firewall. Pages can be open for anyone to edit, for multiple users or groups to edit, or for just one person to modify, depending on the needs of the organization.

There are a number of different wiki programs/engines/services available today. Some provide a very “bare bones” set of functions. Some provide robust, full-text editing features, the ability to send email directly to a page, monitor changes via RSS, add graphics, import Word files, add customized applications and more. All, though, share that one important ingredient -- the ability for users to edit appropriate pages directly on the Web site itself.

Emailing wiki pages can save up to 30% of a person’s time every day by eliminating cumbersome email “daisy chains” that run rampant in offices today. How often do you mine your email box for a note someone sent last week? How often do you have to cut and past an email into a Word document to save on your hard drive? How often do you have to ask someone else to mine their email boxes/hard drives to get a document you need?

All the time. Wikis eliminate these arduous tasks. And that’s just one of their side benefits...

so what’s a wiki “concierge?”

Some people are wary of wiki. It only makes sense. We’re used to thinking of Web pages as a relatively static medium. We’re used to being “the audience,” not participants in the Internet. Plus, there’s a learning curve to creating pages on the wiki.

Some people say, “I don’t have time to learn this.” However, once they realize they can save 30% of their time every day they’re usually willing to take an hour or so to learn a simple user interface and some of the logistics of wikis. And many companies would like to put some time and resources into designing task management, work group centers and project tracking nodes around wikis in order to save even more of their folks’ time.

All they need is some help figuring out exactly how to best utilize this new technology. And how to best get it into the hands of their managers and workers.

That’s where we come in.

Through our unique relationship with JotSpot, we’re at the forefront of helping companies implement wikis into their work flows and logistical structures.

There are three main components to creating a wiki:

1. Functionality. What’s should your wiki do for your organization? Are you interested in project management or community building? An intranet or a way to track HR issues? The number of possible uses for a wiki is limited only by what you’d like to accomplish with an amazingly robust, flexible, multi-user, online communications tool.
    
2. Navigation and Structure. Who will be using the wiki? Who will be administering it? Will it be relatively “static” in form, but with many changes on each page, or will there be lots of new pages all the time? Will it be a hosted or in-house solution? Who will be the administrator? What permissions and groups are necessary? What kinds of applications -- calendars, forums, project management functions, directories, polls, etc.. -- will be needed?
    
3. Training. Our wiki concierge service is here to get you started, answer questions about functionality and make sure you’re well positioned for success. How long we stay is up to you. More importantly, just as we’ll train your employees to use your wiki, we highly recommend you let us train someone in your organization to be your wiki concierge for the long haul.

need an example?

Check out: www.innowiki.jot.com. This is a multiple-user wiki that Sanestorm created for Idea Champions (IC), a consulting firm specializing in business innovation. IC wanted a whimsical look/feel for the wiki to help inspire community involvement and a feeling of fun. They also wanted a “forum” page as a central online meeting point for the thirty or so users who had their own individual wiki pages. “YouTopia” features a number of articles created by IC and demons rates how Sanestorm interweaves your branding/focus into your wiki so the look/feel/functionality reflects your organization’s needs and culture.

next steps

Contact John Havens to chat about your company’s needs. We’ll listen and then get back to you on a conference call with our team and yours to provide you with some ballpark ideas and pricing. Or we can send you a proposal, whichever works for you.

By the way, at some point you may ask yourself—why would I hire these guys for this service if I can just go to JotSpot.com and create a multi-person wiki myself? Great question. Our answer:

• We’ve done it before and understand how it works.
• We’ve tried it with other wiki engines and content management systems and have chosen Jot because it’s best... but the experiences we’ve had with the other systems translates into more ideas about how to make wikis work for you.
• We also build blogs, web sites, print ads, direct marketing campaigns... just click on “what we do” for the whole list. The point being that project management skills are built into all these marketing endeavors. We love this stuff for our own nefarious purposes, and so love helping other people get the best out of it.
• It’s hard to see your own nose. You’ll look at wikis and see a couple obvious ways in which they might help you out. We’ll sit down and talk with you, in depth, about your current project management processes and workgroup communications. We’ll look at your world from a totally new and funky angle. We’re totally creative guys. You’ll like that about us.

But hey, if you want to do it yourself, go for it. We think you’ll discover that Wikiville is a great and joyous land in which to romp about, and if we can provide any consulting while you build your wiki,  give us a shout.