Encouragement is also a viable methodology for creating and sustaining wiki usage. I am often asked how to encourage someone to use a wiki. As with any change, you must be genuine in your motives. Simply mandating a wiki when you don’t really care, or when you know there is no cultural acceptance of the potential benefits, will lead to failure.
There isn’t a single encouragement technique; as with other aspects of wiki implementation, it is more about sociology than technology. Different techniques work best with different people and personality types. The truth is that you often need to use a combination of different methods to produce the best results. However, the one overriding truth is that a sense of enthusiasm and involvement from the people advocating the use of the wiki is essential.
Peer encouragement is perhaps the most effective. Experience has shown that wiki growth in the early stages can be exponential as others see the benefits being gained by early adopters. The rate of growth will slow as the percentage of contributors reaches its natural level for the given community. However, the influence of peers can help spread the use of the wiki into other functional areas.
Verbal feedback is one of the simplest and most effective ways to encourage wiki usage. A verbal acknowledgment that someone has posted something on the wiki reinforces that person’s sense of worth within the community. This sort of feedback is also often overheard by other potential contributors and can add to the sense that they too should be adding to the wiki.
Verbal reinforcement can be used with other recognition techniques, such as mentioning a contribution during a team meeting, or sending a short “nice article” email. This sort of activity builds a recognition that the effort of adding things to the wiki not only helps the individual, but also the community as a whole. In some cases, such as a software user community wiki, you may want to recognize frequent and quality contributors by bestowing some special title or rank on them, such as an “MVP” award. This can then be seen by other users as a goal to aim for and may encourage greater participation.
Another great way to get people to participate is by providing visual feedback on wiki activity in a place that all potential contributors can easily see.
Some ideas include the following:
The best way to get people to use and contribute to a wiki is to do it yourself, and not just at the start. Your commitment must be ongoing. If users see the person responsible for the wiki stop using it, then they will too. There really is no substitute for “monkey see, monkey do.” Leading by example is still the best way to get other people to participate.