Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 1. Feature diagram
and their interdependencies [6]. Fig. 1 depicts the feature diagram for WS. The
diagram states that a WS expression captures the company settings in terms
of existing documentation practices, communication means, restrictions, the
existing organigram and finally, presentation concerns. Next paragraphs delve
into these notions.
Documentation Setting. A common problem for open communities is that
of fixing a common terminology and understanding. This is easier in the
case of corporate wikis where glossaries, documentation guidelines or even,
some content might already exists. This setting needs to be captured in wiki
terms. A basic classification of wiki pages is that of
“articles”, “categories”
and
“templates”
. Articles stand for the
content
that is progressively and socially
edited. Next, categories are commonly used as tags to easily locate, organize and
navigate among articles.
Glossaries
can help to identify initial wiki categories.
Finally, templates provide content to be embedded in other pages. Through
parameterization, they permit to reuse and ensure a formatted content along
distinct pages. Corporate
guidelines
can then be re-interpreted as wiki templates
that guide article editing.
Fig. 1 depicts
“glossary”
,
“content”
and
“guideline”
as three features of
the company's documentation setting that can impact the wiki Moreover, wikis
frequently support living projects where project milestones might need to be
accounted for by the wiki. This does not apply to other settings where content
is the result of free-willing participation and hence, contribution is not tight
to pressing schedules. Wiki wise, this implies that
“event”
is a semantically
meaningful piece of data, and so should it be markuped and rendered (e.g.,
through a calendar).
Communication Setting. Wikis are an effective mechanism to support knowl-
edge building through collaboration. This implies the existence of coordination
and conflict resolution strategies. When wikis are deployed in an existing
organization, wikis become an additional means that should be integrated with
existing communication channels. This poses a range of questions: who is going
