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Sian Cooper

A knowledge sharing and collaboration platform. - 33 views

Net308_508 wikis education corporations collaboration

started by Sian Cooper on 21 Mar 12
  • Sian Cooper
    #1 Sian Cooper on 21 Mar 12
     
    Hendrix, D., & Johannsen, G. (May 16th, 2008). A knowledge sharing and collaboration platform. Inside Knowledge. 11(8). Retrieved 20th March 2012 from http://www.ikmagazine.com/xq/asp/sid.0/articleid.0A6EF1DD-1D6A-4CD0-94EA-DC872A5A708E/eTitle.Case_study_Shell_Wiki/qx/display.htm


    'Wisdom of the crowds' is not just limited to groups of people, but branches out and extends to major organisations that employ the use wikis to facilitate knowledge sharing amongst employees. One such company is Shell.

    The Shell wiki was initially intended to be a "community managed internal encyclopaedia that made up-to-date knowledge from all Shell's disciplines easily available to staff around the world". However an overwhelming amount of knowledge sharing and collaboration from employees has seen a vast amount of materials arise from the introduction of the wiki, including training manuals and technical handbooks. In addition, the Shell Open University employs the wiki as a learning tool, with the majority of content for the course being published in the Shell wiki. A nine-volume "Shell Exploration and Production handbook" has also been converted from print into a wiki entry, allowing experts in the field, and other Shell employees, to regularly update content.

    Reasons for the organisations success in implementing the wiki may relate to the way it was initially set-up. In order to encourage employees to participate in knowledge contribution, they are sent links to training modules that provide information that help develop basic wiki skills. Training sessions are also offered to employees to assist them in understanding and contributing to the wiki. In addition, the company motivates employees by providing incentives and prizes to participants that share information rich content and use the wiki effectively.

    Ultimately here we see a major organisation that has successfully implemented a platform to which its employees can build upon content and share knowledge, helping to publish various training manuals whilst keeping company information up-to-date… a success that is not only attributed to the organisation, but also the 'wisdom of the employees'. (288 words).
  • Velia Torres
    #2 Velia Torres on 04 Apr 12
     
    This case study shows how companies and more specifically Shell is using a Wiki for employees to collaborate and share information. What I find interesting is the use of an open system in a highly corporate and what one would consider rigidly structure environment. The article presents a very positive image of Wiki use within a corporate environment where information is not traditionally shared openly to members unrelated to a team or project. I wonder about the potential this opened approach has to impact the hierarchy in organisations and the sort of opportunities and threats it could create. An interesting question might be whether the sort of shift we are seeing in power in some governments could become evident in the workplace. One of the reasons people contribute is to gain status (Wasko & Faraj, 2005), would gaining status on your work's Wiki increase the human capital promise of future reward of being promoted?

    It is evident that enough employees use the Wiki to collaborate and that Shell has achieved its aim to aggregate mass contribution in terms of content and generated interest among a wider audience. Their Wiki now has entries from over 6000 users; this shows that an opened content system can be useful amongst organisations if implanted well. It seems companies are seeing the value in providing an opened platform to distribute ideas and to promote resources being shared.

    Additional references:

    Wasko, M. & Faraj, S. (2005), 'Why Should I Share? Examining Social Capital and Knowledge Contribution in Electronic Networks of Practice', MIS Quarterly Vol. 29 No 1, pp 35-57. Retrieved on March 08, 2012 http://csz.csu.edu.tw/pp/COMMIT/%E6%96%87%E7%8D%BB/%E4%BF%A1%E4%BB%BB-%E6%89%BF%E8%AB%BE%E7%90%86%E8%AB%96/Why%20Should%20I%20Share_Examining%20Social%20Capital%20and%20Knowledge%20Contribution%20in%20Electronic%20Networks%20of%20.pdf
  • Emily Lloyd
    #3 Emily Lloyd on 06 Apr 12
     
    A Knowledge Sharing and Collaboration Platform provides a good summary of some of the advantages wikis provide for businesses. Written by Dr Donna Hendrix, and Griet Johannsen, both part of the Shell International's Global Knowledge Management team, I wonder how biased their version of the success of the Shell Wiki is however (Hendrix & Johannsen, 2008).

    The authors portray the progress of the Shell Wiki in a very positive way. They see it as a way of working together and cooperating with others, sharing knowledge and learning new things (Hendrix & Johannsen, 2008, para. 6-10). Which I would say are all reasons why Wikipedia is so successful too.

    Another interesting part of this article was what incentives Shell has introduced to motivate contributors. While Wikipedia contributors, "have not gotten even the glory of affixing their names" (Rosenzweig, 2006, p.117) to their entries, and generally contribute out of good will, Shell Wiki contributors are encouraged with prizes to share their knowledge (Hendrix & Johannsen, 2008, para. 17). "Prizes are awarded for articles with the best content, the most effective use of wiki functionality, the highest level of interactivity (such as the most links to other articles), the most innovative layout, or the greatest number of page impressions." (Hendrix & Johannsen, 2008, para. 17). While this would not work for a big collaborative project such as Wikipedia or BitTorrent, and this is why they use other strategies to encourage contributors, I can see why this kind of encouragement would work within a wiki for a corporation such as Shell.

    References

    Hendrix, D, & Johannsen, G. (2008). A Knowledge Sharing and Collaborative Platform. Inside Knowledge, 11(8). Retrieved from http://www.ikmagazine.com/xq/asp/sid.0/articleid.0A6EF1DD-1D6A-4CD0-94EA-DC872A5A708E/eTitle.Case_study_Shell_Wiki/qx/display.htm

    Rosenzweig, R. (2006). Can History Be Open Source? Wikipedia and the Future of the Past. The Journal of American History, 93, 117-146. Retrieved from: http://www.jstor.org/

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