4 ms·
I was heavily involved with a university project of designing and building an open wheel racecar. We tried to do the exact same thing, that is, reduce our paper
by brusqe 18y ago
I was heavily involved with a university project of designing and building an open wheel racecar. We tried to do the exact same thing, that is, reduce our paperwork while increase knowledge dissemination (as well as knowledge retention and accountability for work).
At first we implemented a wiki. The techie guys on the team saw the long-term value of it and filled it in dutifully, however, many people simply didn't "get" the idea. The wiki ended up stagnating, as only a handful of people used it. The non-techie guys would inevitably ask about what was currently happening, of which the answer was already posted on the wiki. People just never warmed to it. Knowledge management and communication should not be a struggle, or else it will fall by the way side.
The solution was to step away from a wiki system (MediaWiki) and towards something else (Basecamp). Basecamp fitted in with how everyone used the net. Message threads that were relevant to people were sent to their inbox, they could reply to from their own mail account. Milestones are clear - tasks are clear. It's just usable and seamless.
A wiki has a perceived barrier of entry. It's a lot to take on at once for a non-techie. Using the systems which are currently in place, (eg email, a homepage/dashboard setup) to disseminate info will go a long way, rather than fighting an uphill battle of getting people to understand #REDIRECT [[pagename]]