Chapter 10. A Cornucopia of Content

Now that you have decided a wiki is right for your project or organization, selected a wiki platform, planned and implemented it, and built your community, what do you do now?

10.1. Ongoing Maintenance

Like any good garden, a wiki will have a mix of annuals (content you only need to work with for a short time), perennials (content that you will work with on a regular basis), and even dormant seeds (content and ideas that have proven to be of little actual value). You will need to keep doing some pruning, landscaping, and the occasional bit of spring-cleaning to keep the content fresh and relevant.

Once your wiki is established, it will fall into one of the following categories in terms of maintenance:

10.1.1. Archival

A wiki built for a single purpose, with a specific goal in mind. These project-oriented wikis may not be needed once a project is complete and the specific goal achieved. However, it may be useful to maintain them for archival purposes. This may mean removing editing permission for all except the wiki gardener, while still giving community members permission to read and comment.

A wiki that is subject to regular, planned updates. A typical application might be a wiki for documentation or one related to a regular event, such as a conference. This type of wiki may lie dormant for extended periods between updates, and usage will invariably drop off as little or no new content is added.

One way to reinvigorate such a wiki and maintain interest is to hold events such as a wiki-sprint, where a team of people get together in a collaborative environment – preferably in the same physical space, such as a conference room – to create the new content in a short period of time. This jump starts content updates, shows the community that the wiki is active, and encourages others to contribute new content.

A knowledge-base wiki where you expect ongoing, unplanned contributions. The primary ongoing task with a wiki of this type is continuing to promote awareness. You need to continually demonstrate the value of the wiki as a resource and a collaborative tool. Inviting new users into the community – for example by having new employees set up their own home page – is an excellent way to keep interest levels high and promote new contributions. Using some of the feedback and reward methods mentioned earlier can also help retain interest.

Of course the best incentive for people to keep using a wiki of any type is to make sure that it has content that provides real value and that it continues to give participants a sense of belonging to a community that respects and uses their work.