Tech Wiki for work

MoSiAc

So in my free time at work I decided to make a wiki at my work place detailing all the tech related work that is done here. It's secure from outside eyes, and the only people inside that can see it are the tech people that have been given accounts.

It's gotten a great amount of praise but I think it could be better and I'm hoping you 'outside the box' thinkers can help me.

So far I have an alphabetical listing of all the software that is installed / supported on site, each software page has installation instructions a direct link to the network resource where the files to install it are, and general troubleshooting. Our Printer IP list with connections to see the web console of the machine to check status and an explanation of how to properly sit each of them up.
Lastly a big main help connections page. It lists all the help desk contacts, IT people both above and below our ranks and other resources offered should someone need to try and research a problem.

It doesn't feel like it's enough yet, not sure what else I could cover though. Main point is that this is only information that is accessed by technicians, no end users see this, and no one that isn't a tech at our site can see it.

Arminas

What software are you running it on? But that wiki sounds fairly comprehensive for all things work related.

You might also consider a personal wiki page for each user so they can keep their own notes. Or a welcome page for the new staff to explain how to navigate around.

I use a personal wiki at work as a tech diary so that I can know what changes I've made or if I have new personal notes I don't want to commit to the general work to see that usually entail my personal tidbits of how frustrating something was and to remember it for next time, etc.

TheScruple

We have an application inventory at my job on our wiki; it lists all the proprietary applications we develop or use, and lists 4 contacts for each: Technical Lead, Business Lead, Systems Analyst, and Database Admin. Makes it easy for people to know who to go to internally if something breaks. Sometimes it does more harm than good, as it will cause people to storm off to desks instead of opening issues on our issue tracking site, but most of the time it's beneficial.

MoSiAc

Yeah I'd kind of like to keep away from X person deals with W server or Y hardware.

It's a dokuwiki running on my work comp using wamp and we're gonna move it to one of the real servers when we get a few spare minutes.

I do like the idea of a bigger Welcome page. Right now it just has a list of the 3 main areas you can go to that don't exactly link to each other which is help, software, and printers. I might try to make a move for personal pages for each user, but as of right now these guys live for pens and paper so I'm not gonna try and force a hand or anything but it be something I could say in passing.

Bigtoy_J

How many other users in your company add to the wiki? The real power of a wiki is not what "you" add to it, but what everybody brings to the site.

Like you I introduced a Wiki to my company three years ago. Went with Mediawiki software. It has become a useful tool for a number of folks across several disciplines. I fully expect once you get a few folks using it, you are going to have a lot more folks wanting to try and use it also.

Some things we have run into and lessons we learned at my place of business with respect to the wiki:

- Some folks want to use it as a way to store their documents, but on a "privileged" user basis. I have to make it clear to them that if they want anything held back from any users, then it is not fit for the wiki. What they want is a CMS, and a wiki is not a CMS.

- Be ready for some folks to request their own wiki. At first there was a "use the one wiki" mentality. Our IT department took over the Wiki, and decided that they would create a wiki for any group that asked, if they could show the need for it to be separate from the rest. We now have a "dev", "sales/marketing", "shadow-project A-Z" wiki's on our network.

- Make sure you have a good backup process in place. And I do not mean "Joe-Blow" copies it weekly to a backup drive. Have a copy, and a redundant off-site copy if possible.

- If you get a lot of users involved in changing the wiki, you may run into the "style" game. Everybody has their own. If this becomes a problem there are a number of sites that will provide basics. Pick a style and enforce it if you must. (But if you can, just relax and let things work out.)

- Do not allow anonymous edits. Install an LDAP bridge, or require each user that wants to edit have a user id. That way you can track down problem contributors faster (if you have any). You will also be able to discuss changes that you want to either roll-back or modify with the previous author more easily.

Congrats in the Wiki. It is a great tool, and I am a strong advocate for their use inside of the business.

MoSiAc

Yeah currently there can be no anon edits because you can only even see the wiki if you have an account, and only I and the other technicians can create accounts. For now there will be at max 4 people adding and editing. I'm doing a lot of the input so far because of all of us I have the most free time but I've explained how it works to the others and they are very interested in adding to it once they get the hang of it. Where I work is kind of small so hardly anyone else will ever see it, and it'll be backed up on our real servers with redundancy so I'm not worried about "losing" anything.

I don't think style will be an issue either since most everything that goes in will be lists and text with headings.

I think it would be great if every department at our work place wanted a wiki and I wouldn't mind setting them up, it could in theory seem to save a lot of time explaining how things work over and over to people but I would also hate for my work place to get a 'check the wiki' mentality but more a 'oh i forgot how to do x i wonder if it's on the wiki'

Bigtoy_J

MoSiAc wrote: »

I think it would be great if every department at our work place wanted a wiki and I wouldn't mind setting them up, it could in theory seem to save a lot of time explaining how things work over and over to people but I would also hate for my work place to get a 'check the wiki' mentality but more a 'oh i forgot how to do x i wonder if it's on the wiki'

I totally understand the mentality concern. I always answer folks questions, but what I do is bring up the wiki in front of them, show them how to perform the search. Then, if we cannot find the information they are looking for I make myself available to help the add it to the wiki so that the next person that asks has that resource. The important part is making sure that folks know that the best way to promote a wiki is to be patient, and instead of saying "Go look at the wiki" say "Let me check the wiki with you."

I also agree with your view that having only four folks using it initially will make your life easier.