Sharing Knowledge Is Not That Hard - Wikis

former_member183750 · ‎2013 Jul 25

Purpose

This blog is a continuation of a series of blogs under the heading of Sharing Knowledge Is Not That Hard. The blog discusses wikis, which are one of the many tools available to us for sharing knowledge.

Overview

Wikis are now free of moderator intervention (a new change from May 2013). From the standpoint of points, wikis are most valuable as they are worth 40 points. Note that this point assignment will be changed in the near future to match the assignment for Blogs and Jive Documents (e.g.; 10 points). Perhaps another value to wikis is that they are saved (or can be saved) in layered hierarchies.

How to Wiki

Wikis are by definition collaborative documents. A short description of when to create a wiki is provided by Jason Lax in the Jive Document The Difference Between a Discussion, Blog Post, Document and Wiki:

Storing content that requires layered hierarchies or that will need such structure in the future.

These are mostly collaborative efforts where other users can alter the wiki where allowed.

A good starting resource that discusses wiki creation and required template was created by Brendan O’Brian; Wiki - Creation Guide. The guide is available

on the Employee Network Wiki. All SAP employees must adhere to this guide when creating an SAP Wikis. My advice to non SAP employees would be to check out existing wikis and follow the same structure, though this would not be a requirement.

Why to Wiki

The process of creating a Wiki is rigorous and well defined. See the SCN Wiki Guide for details
Anyone registered with SAP SCN can create a Wiki
The wikis require the use of a specific template in order to receive full points or worse suffer rejection of the wiki
Lots of points awarded (40 as of May 2013) for creating a well structured and defined Wiki
Wikis are searchable on SCN and SAP Market Place
Anyone can add a comment to a Wiki
Anyone can add and improve a Wiki
Wikis can be rolled back if new changes are deemed to be incorrect or un-necessary
Title of a Wiki can be changed at will since the URL is not tied to the title
Wikis can be "watched" using the functionality "Start watching this space"

Why not to Wiki

Anyone registered with SAP SCN can create a Wiki
Non SAP employees do not have access to the new Wiki template
Wikis are located on an external server, thus are not part of SAP SCN
Lots of confusion on where to create Wikis
Hard to get help
Cumbersome editor tool
Lots / too many rules on content and structure

My Experience

Initially I enjoyed creating Wikis. However, my preferences shifted to tools such as Blogs, and Jive Documents. I find the organization of the wikis quickly becoming hard to follow, requiring a number of clicks to get to the wiki I may be interested in. Since the Wikis live on a server separate from the SCN Jive platform, they are not part of the actual SCN Space. At this time, I only create Wikis as a continuation of an existing series. For example.; Crystal Reports for Visual Studio 2010 - Service Pack 1 - Fixed Issues.

Examples of Wikis

The BI Wiki is located at the following link:

http://wiki.sdn.sap.com/wiki/x/EQHtE