Social Technologies for CIER Projects - Proposal

Social Technologies for CIER Projects

Reegan D. Breu

Manager, Information Services

March 2007

Needs Assessment/Statement of Issue:

The Centre for Indigenous Environmental Resources' (CIER) staff are actively involved in community-based projects throughout the year. The majority of these projects require travel throughout the country, sometimes for several weeks at a time. Further, project teams often involve CIER staff, First Nations throughout Canada and external consultants. For all projects, easy access to project files by team members who are not CIER staff is not available. During travel periods, staff access to their project files is limited.

During projects, team members often compile supporting resources such as website bookmarks/favorites. They are inaccessible to most project team members as they are compiled by each individual and stored in decentralised locations (i.e. in their browser client favourites/bookmarks folder). During periods of travel, they are inaccessible to all members.

Project Description:

The purpose of this project is to implement wiki and social bookmarking technologies in support of CIER projects. A wiki is a type of website that supports editing by registered users. It does not require knowledge of html and supports collaboration among its editors. Social bookmarking software is web-based technology used to compile, tag and share favourite web pages and files.

Through the implementation of these technologies, project teams will have access to a “one-stop shop” for appropriate project files and supporting resources throughout the duration of each project, and be able to work on these files regardless of their location.

Each project wiki would include the following categories and areas, with additional categories added as seen fit by its project team:

• Project Management: Includes project proposal, Scope of Work, workplan, budgets, forms (e.g. consent forms, waivers)
• Team Communications/Ideas Board: Used to replace group emails; a space for team members to share their project ideas
• Project documents: Includes finalised background documents, research tools (e.g. surveys, interview questions), quarterly and final reports, and public documents (e.g. project marketing and communications materials)
• Working documents: The “work-in-progress” space for all project-related documents prior to approval (after which, they are transferred to Project documents)
• Supporting resources: Link to the social bookmarking account with its relevant project bookmarks
• Project calendar: Identifies project timelines, deliverables and responsibilities

Anticipated Benefits of the Pilot Project:

It is anticipated that the implementation of these technologies will result in the following:

• Greater support to staff and their project work while they are away from the office on travel.
• Increased access to key documents and resources by other project team members (First Nations, external consultants).
• More opportunities for team collaboration. A wiki has the potential to compliment the “traditional” modes of collaboration used by CIER during its projects (e.g. in-person meetings, video and teleconference calls, email, telephone).
• A reduction in duplication of efforts through the centralisation of documents and supporting resources (e.g. bookmarks).
• The ability to provide project-specific tags to bookmarks gathered, enhancing relevance and promoting accessibility.
• Opportunities to build capacity within project teams through the provision of training on the technologies being implemented.

Evidence that these technologies may hold relevance for CIER:

The following articles/organisations provide support for these technologies/are examples of their implementation:

• “Using a Wiki for Documentation and Collaborative Authoring” by Michael Angeles (http://www.llrx.com/features/librarywikis.htm) provides an example of wiki technology being used for group collaboration projects. 
• “Social Bookmarking in the Enterprise” by David Millen, Jonathan Feinberg, and Bernard Kerr, IBM (http://www.acmqueue.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=344) defines social bookmarking, highlights considerations to be made when implementing social bookmarking within an organisation, and describes a social bookmarking prototype called dogear.
• The Subject Access and Classification Committee wiki of the American Indian Library Association (http://ailasacc.pbwiki.com/) is a good example of a wiki with a specific focus. As with the project wiki listed below, editing privileges are restricted to its members.
• The Future of Librarians in the Workforce Project wiki (http://libraryworkforce.org/tiki-index.php) is an example of a wiki being used for a specific project. It requires a login to make edits.

Potential Pilot Project Challenges/Recommendations for Addressing Challenges:

Challenge - Security issues: Will the public have access to the wiki? What files and resources can be included in the wiki?

Recommendation: The wiki technology chosen will need to have security measures in place (e.g. logins, ability to make certain pages private, etc.). For security reasons, discussions will need to occur with CIER Management to determine the types of files acceptable for inclusion in the wiki.

Challenge: Integration with CIER’s existing Enterprise Content Management processes and structures: What are the implications of creating a wiki for project purposes, particularly if separate wikis are developed for each CIER project? How do wikis fit within CIER’s current enterprise content management (ECM) practices?

Recommendation: Explore and identify wiki technologies that support having a number of projects (with separate logins) as part of a single wiki. Research how wikis have been integrated in existing ECM frameworks and identify recommendations for wiki integration with CIER’s ECM processes and structure.

Challenge: Staff and project team members’ acceptance of the technology: Will staff and other project team members want to use the wiki and social bookmarking tool?

Recommendation: Conduct a training session with staff and project team members on the technologies. Allow sufficient time for team members to “play” with the technologies prior to project commencement.

Recommended Wiki and Social Bookmarking Software:

For the wiki pilot, I would recommend that CIER consider PBWiki or Wikispaces as they are free and provide options to make the wiki private. If the pilot is successful, CIER will need to explore wiki technologies that support multi-projects within one wiki. 

For the social bookmarking software, I would recommend del.icio.us given that it is widely used and easy to learn/use.

Ongoing Maintenance and Policy Issues:

• Wiki and social bookmarking passwords. Efforts will need to be undertaken to ensure that passwords are protected during the project and changed at the end of each project. It would be useful to have a policy supporting this.
• Roles and responsibilities of project team members will need to be clearly outlined.
• CIER needs to clarify/determine how the wiki and social bookmarking tools can integrate effectively with CIER’s current ECM structures and processes. If these tools do not integrate effectively, consideration needs to be given to their future feasibility and application within the organisation.