Writing

7 Effective Wiki Uses and the Companies That Benefit From Them

In Chapter 2 of Wikipatterns, I outline the key ways that a collaboration platform inside your organization differs from open platforms on the web, and review ways to use a wiki, including project management, product development, knowledge base, event planning, intranet, meeting management, blogging, and external collaboration. No matter how you plan to use the…

“Noise-free & Biased” vs. “Noisy & Unbiased”. Which is better?

Comparing China and India for the BBC program Global Business, Harvard Professor Tarun Khanna described information flow in China as “noise-free and biased” vs. “noisy and unbiased” in India. Both approaches have their advantages and drawbacks, so I started thinking about these advantages and drawbacks as they apply to business. For China, the main advantage…

A Man at Home in the World

Barack Obama speaks at a rally in Kenya. Tony Karumba / AFP-Getty Images Newsweek correspondents Richard Wolffe, Michael Hirsch, Erika Kinetz, and Sarah Kliff look at Barack Obama’s early years in Jakarta, Indonesia, and the weeks he spent travelling through Pakistan as a college student, as examples of a foreign experience far different from the…

Interview: The State of Wikis in Education

Arielle Pandolph, a graduate student in the College of Information Studies at Florida State University, contacted me to discuss wikis for a course project. She’s currently a student in Dr. Lisa Tripp’s Design and Production of Media Resources course. Arielle says: Most of the students in the program will use the degree to become librarians…

APC’s 7 Strategies for Implementing a Successful Corporate Wiki

Industry Week reports on the results of a study on wikis in business by the Society for Information Management’s Advanced Practices Council (APC): When considering use of wikis, CIOs should keep in mind that in reality, a large number of companies may already have employees using wikis for work purposes without the authority to do…

Wiley Publishing Releases First Practical How-to Guide for Wikis

The press release for the Wikipatterns book is now out on BusinessWire and PRWeb. One site that picked up the release is DayLife, which impressed me because it prominently displays quotes extracted from the release itself. From a reader’s perspective, I can imagine how seeing a compelling quote might grab attention and encourage a look…

Skysight: The Story of SOFIA, NASA & DLR’s Space Telescope in a 747

Skysight: The Story of SOFIA, NASA & DLR’s Space Telescope in a 747

I wrote and directed a documentary on the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), an airborne telescope built by NASA and the German Aerospace Center (DLR). It was filmed on site at NASA Ames Research Center in Northern California. The film was the centerpiece of a multi-year project to create educational materials showing how spectroscopy,…