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re: If I were to evaluate the capability of a small company to accept Web 2.0 tech, how would I do so?
by J Mike Munsil on Jun 16, 2008 - 02:08 PM read 74 times |
Hey, Howard!
I have sold the use of a wiki on a small-team short-term effort. We are in the middle of the effort right now.
Client profile; small company within a small company (that is, the environmental group within a larger egnineering group)
Experience with Web 2.0 tech: minimal, except for Wikipedia, but i tend to discount that as reading Wikipedia articles isn't really using the technology
Team Size: 5 persons, all 5 in diffferent offices, including 4 different companies and 1 person in Oman
Project Duration: 2 weeks (we are in week 2)
Adoption of the wiki: minimal, 2 of 5 (eiki developer (me) and Oman user)
End Goal of Wiki: fast document development, version control, quick and esay project manager oversight
Of the 3 itemes I suggested in my initial post as possible indicators, 1 clearly fits (self-identification) and possible 2 (in terms of frustration that the PM doesn;t have the time available to be more involved).
As this project goes forward, I will note lessons learned here, if there is interest.
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re: re: If I were to evaluate the capability of a small company to accept Web 2.0 tech, how would I do so?
a reply to re: If I were to evaluate the capability of a small company to accept Web 2.0 tech, how would I do so?
in a conversation thread started here
by hcpark on Jun 16, 2008 - 02:35 PM read 81 timesAwesome.
Out of curiousity (if you can tell us this) what tech are you using?
I may have mentioned this before. But you might want to look at http://www.openteams.com/. Tory is a good friend of ours.
Also, we may be able to open up our platform (but allow for their security), not sure.
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I am using the simplest tech available. I hosted a project site on my hosting service and installed the Dokuwiki wiki engine.
Time spent:
- 5 minutes to set up a new subdomain
- 45 minutes to install and set up Dokuwiki, inclduing the skeleton of the project site
- 45 minutes to create the project team users and implement the Access Control List system
- Since then, about 1 hour a day to administer (that is my minimum daily charge).
The project site framework is very simple.
- Home Page
- How-To Page for using the system
- An Uploads/Downloads page for resource documents
- A Powerpoint file for navigation/editing the wiki
- Discussion areas at the bottom of each page
The Home Page contains the following:
- Table of site backups with date and timestamp.
- Table of team members, containing all their contact information
- Table of quick links, including:
- a link to the page that is the text document we are creating for the project
- a link to a page with directions on how to use the system for this project
- a link to an uploads/downloads page for project resources
- a link to download a Powerpoint presentation on how to navigate and edit the wiki
- a discussion area (topics and replies) at the bottom of the page
For the page that is our deliverable, I simply pasted in the agreed-to table of contents for the report. Inside each subsection I posted the name of the team member responsible for that section. The wiki engine automatically created a menu with links based on section headings.
As the text is generated on the wiki (mostly by cut and paste), another person receives an email notification of the changes and proof-reads and edits that section for grammar, spelling, consistency and citations.
Once the document is complete I will simply cut and paste it into a Word (ugh) document. I will use a macro to change the headings wikicode to Word styles, generate the TOC, and voila!
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This particular project is to write the detailed scope fo work for a much larger project about US$600k for a construction project (about US$1bilion) that will be completed in-country by locals. We hope to also win the project oversight for the Us$600k project. If we do, we will have even more use for this (or similar technology). This is a test case to prove my contention that wiki use for specific projects is dead simple and has huge benefits to the project team.
I am also co-authoring a paper with a client on the use of wiki to manage external compliance audits. We are using the same tech to draft and edit that paper.
Comments?
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