Collaborative Knowledge Base
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The document discusses how companies can crowdsource content and technical documentation by leveraging their "in-crowd" of employees, customers, partners, and experts. It recommends implementing a collaborative knowledge base (CKB) using MindTouch's open source platform to attract new knowledge and perspectives in a cost-effective way. By engaging the in-crowd through a CKB, companies can foster innovation, produce documentation at a lower cost than internal teams, and build stronger relationships with stakeholders.
Collaborative Knowledge Base
- 1. For Technical Documentation Teams & Knowledge Base Administrators How to Crowdsource Your Content and Technical Documentation by Mark Fidelman MindTouch, Inc. table of Contents Collaborative Knowledge base Collaborative Knowledge Base...1 Success today is not about amassing knowledge or information; instead its Cost Justified ..............................1 about absorbing and processing new information and using the knowledge gained to innovate? The Web 1.0 concept of a corporate knowledge base valued The In-Crowd is Fickle ................3 accumulated information. Terabytes of data were gathered, categorized, and secured for future generations, like the reference section in a library. Often impressive in scale it is was hardly the incubator of corporate innovation. Ideas are rarely found in the details of existing knowledge. Rather, innovation is born from new knowledge or perspectives applied to existing ideas. The corporate knowledge base should foster innovation by attracting new knowledge and enabling perspectives. Archived information is only one component of the solution; as it is the knowledge baseline from which innovation evolves. A visionary can single-handedly ideate the next big thing, but two heads are better than one. And a hundred heads would be even better? Web 2.0 technologies have proven the value of “crowdsourcing” – appealing to all users across the Internet for information, expertise, and ideas to help solve a problem or accomplish an objective – yet, most companies are unwilling to submit critical proprietary information to the whims of anonymous Internet denizens. To create a corporate knowledge base that leverages the power of crowdsourcing, companies must first attract and engage their “in” crowd of people, including employees, customers, business partners, and industry experts, who have a vested interest in the new information and ideas that will be generated by the crowd. By implementing a MindTouch Collaborative Knowledge Base (CKB), companies can cater to their in-crowd to develop a powerful source of new information and ideas that foster innovation. Cost Justified Admit it – you’re tired of hearing experts tell you how to become more innovative. Different vendors offer a wide range of solutions that cost money
- 2. How to Crowdsource Your Content and Technical Documentation 2 For Technical Documentation Teams & Knowledge Base Administrators and promise speculative ROI. Innovation is necessary, but the cost of Cost Justify a innovation does not necessarily have to be expensive. Collaborative Knowledge base (CKb) A MindTouch CKB, deployed on our highly regarded collaboration • The corporate knowledge base platform, can be ramped from ground zero at minimal cost and scaled to should incubate, not archive, enterprise level as a company’s in-crowd, and ROI, grows. A more aggressive ideas to foster innovation implementation can deliver quantifiable ROI within weeks with expedited • Crowdsource a CKB by user adoption because a CKB delivers hard-dollar savings. Consider a cultivating your “in” crowd to company is already paying to try to collect the information that will be make positive contributions provided for free by the in-crowd. Feedback from customers, product • Build stronger connections between team members, suggestions, potential partner initiatives, and industry trends have historically partners, and customers been gathered, developed, or investigated – sometimes accurately – by • Using MindTouch’s open company staff at a significant cost. An engaged in-crowd can provide that source CKB ensures input, and more, on an ongoing basis with greater clarity. An enterprise CKB immediate ROI by producing has the real potential of replacing the work product of multiple staff members, hard dollar savings and high- value information while contributing ideas and perspectives from hundreds of connected and informed people. Figure 1. MindTouch Collaborative Knowledge Base homepage October 28, 2009 © 2009, MindTouch, Inc.
- 3. How to Crowdsource Your Content and Technical Documentation 3 For Technical Documentation Teams & Knowledge Base Administrators The benefits of collaboration as enabled by the CKB are also well documented. From connecting globally dispersed supply chains to capturing customer motivations to shortening project time-to-completion by eliminating iterative processes, collaboration has been deemed strategically important to the future of their businesses by more than 50% of CEOs recently surveyed. Clients that have implemented a MindTouch CKB also report unexpected benefits from collaboration – stronger relationships across the in-crowd. Employees have greater visibility into each team member’s contribution. Customers feel connected, and that the company values their input. Business partnerships become transparent, so that morale builds as team members can track execution of common goals through each company’s organization. Web 2.0 is rapidly creating an expectation by customers and partners that companies interact at a personal level. Engaging the in-crowd through a MindTouch CKB can meet those expectations. Figure 2. Safe crowdsourcing thorugh content moderation the in-Crowd is fiCKle While people will go to any length to complain or criticize, the in-crowd must be properly motivated to contribute meaningful insight and thoughtful October 28, 2009 © 2009, MindTouch, Inc.
- 4. How to Crowdsource Your Content and Technical Documentation 4 For Technical Documentation Teams & Knowledge Base Administrators suggestions. A company’s partners and customers are on the bleeding edge of any ineffective communications. They feel the pain, know what a solution should provide, and want to be involved. The CKB empowers that in-crowd to contribute to the clarification and updates of company documentation, and treats them as valued members of the project team. The MindTouch CKB solution is a robust web-based application that engages users through a simple, intuitive interface localized for 20 different languages. Crowdsourcing of documentation is enabled with drag-and-drop, WYSWYG functionality and version review and tracking. Contributors need to see action taken on their input, and the MindTouch CKB enables the company to respond quickly with powerful content moderation tools that allow “editors” to process and approve individual contributions. Production of company-branded PDF documentation directly from the CKB is enabled, and all content is stored as easily accessible XML. The entire process is fast, painless, and immediately satisfying for the in- crowd. Input received will benefit the company’s product development, customer service, marketing, and content development efforts, and should influence senior management’s strategic plan. By implementing a collaborative knowledge base, companies transform partners, customers, and users into an engaged community of expert participants in the company’s innovation strategy. October 28, 2009 © 2009, MindTouch, Inc.
- 5. headquarters Mindtouch Partners MindTouch, Inc. Certified vendors 555 West Beech Street ASK Knowledge-n-Aber Pty. Ltd. San Diego, CA 92101 Corra Tech Nukak Technologies Tel: +1 619.795.8459 Elvenite AB Productive Edge Fax: +1 619.795.3948 Esolia Solutions First Email: marketing@mindtouch.com Fairway Technologies Tinval www.mindtouch.com Intertesto MindTouch Inc. is the leader technology Partners in Enterprise 2.0 Collaborative Aurelia Reporter Pentaho Networks and is changing the GroundWork Salesforce.com way businesses capture, share and collaborate on information. Kaltura ScreenSteps With MindTouch, companies are Microsoft SugarCRM revolutionizing how they work and MySQL The Washington Post increasing returns on investment Novell from existing software, hardware and humanware. MindTouch serves more than 16 Join Mindtouch million users and thousands of companies. Customers include Mozilla, Microsoft, Intel, Intuit, The Washington Post, EMC, Harvard, Timberland, The US Army and The United Nations. MindTouch users report double-digit percentage increases in productivity and orders of magnitude of return on investment from their MindTouch powered Collaborative Intranets, Extranets and Documentation Portals.