How it was advertised

Tiki: the Swiss Knife for CMS / Groupware needs

Location: OSCOM 4, Zürich, OSCOM Business/Legal
Event date and time: Friday Afternoon (October 1, 2004) 14:00 - 14:45

This presentation focuses on some unique features of Tikiwiki and their importance for business acceptance of a CMS (visibility of content, ))What-You-See-Is-What-You-Can-Access((, Push/Pull mechanisms, KISS, etc.)

It is based on practical, essentially non-technical lessons learnt in CMS implementation.

About the presenter:

  • Francois Bachmann is a 36yo Knowledge Management and Groupware Specialist working for a Swiss IT Consultancy.
  • He's an Evangelist for Agile Software Development and Adaptive Methods, which has naturally brought him in touch with the Open Source CMS community.
  • He's been successfully implementing CMS software (and catalysing/accompanying the associated mindset change) in different business contexts.

The actual presentation (use the [slides] button!)

Enterprise Content Management with Tiki/CMS Groupware
François Bachmann, Senior Consultant Knowledge Management / Groupware
ITECOR Switzerland
Presentations

Who am I ?

  • SD since 1992 (well, 1985)
  • Agile Development Evangelist (XP, Scrum, …)
  • KM & Groupware fan (groove, Wiki)


Who are you ?

  • how many already implemented a CMS @ company level
  • how many plan to do so in the near future
  • how many have used Tiki / CMS (aka TikiWiki) / heard of it

Process - Manage…

… expectations

  • Find sponsors - you will need them
  • Clarify what you're up to - it helps to reassess the situation later
  • Don't promise to solve it all with technology - you need people
  • Plan for iterative evolution - don't try to do it all at once


… technology

  • opensourcecms.com is a good start
  • Look for extendability
  • Tiki / CMS, of course :-)


… content

  • Migrate existing content - people will adopt the CMS if they find their stuff
  • Find content authors - look at existing and new content
  • Find fresh content (RSS etc.) you can inject


… change

  • Deciders
  • Authors (Power Users)
  • Users

Tiki / CMS Groupware (aka TikiWiki) history
  • started as a Wiki, now much more: Blog, CMS, Ticketing, File Management, Surveys, Newsletters, Chat, Portal...
  • SourceForge since Oct 2002, project of the month in July 2003
  • LGPL
  • current version 1.8.4 (RC V1.9 testing, V1.10 scoped)
  • 260 SF developers, 5’600 reg.users on http://tikiwiki.org
  • Google says at least 9’000 sites use it

Tiki/CMS Groupware Highlights
  • Swiss Knife
    • Modular Features (showed "Features" screen)
    • Global search

  • Standards / Partners
    • Apache/IIS
    • Smarty / ADODB
    • Linux / Win / MacOSX
    • LGPL
    • xHTML (with HAWHAW support)
  • Unique features (can be turned on/off)
    • Graphical navigation (showed GraphViz screenshot and CommunityMap)
    • Structured (categories, Galaxia Workflow)
    • Content / Navigation (RSS, structures)
    • interface (CSS) customisable by user
    • Karma system for voting/ranking
  • Enterprise Goodies (not spectacular but usefule in an enterprise context)
    • JsCalendar
    • Print2PDF
    • Trackers (ticketing)
    • Live Support System
    • Newsletters
    • [discuss] forums - showed example of "discuss" button
    • Survey / Quiz / Poll
    • Page locking

Case Studies

Replacing a static intranet portal

  • How did it work before
    • mainly top-down communication
    • static site with occasional updates (~6x/year)
    • files on shared drive, no agreed overall structure
  • Allies
    • Power users
    • Admins
  • Initial expectations
    • Deciders: control
    • Employees: find stuff
    • Admins: less duplicates
  • Main challenges
    • Mindset change: DIYP (DoItYourselfPublishing)
    • Structuring content
  • How we did it
    • Business structure for HomePage
    • Reading / searching available without login
    • Brown Bag Training (2x)
    • Bring everything across
    • Start simple
  • Timing
    • Prototype: 2 weeks
    • Parallel to static portal: > 6 months
    • Migration: 1 year

Creating a collaborative workspace for 3 geographical locations
  • How did it work before
    • no workspace
    • e-mail / phone
  • Allies
    • Middle Management (1 site)
    • Authors in 3 locations (politics!!)
  • Initial expectations
    • Deciders: "why not use the existing intranet?"
    • Employees: easy access
    • Admins: less work than Intranet
  • Main Challenges
    • selling to Deciders
    • loss of control resented by some
  • How we did it
    • Bought a CSS stylesheet (thanks, Damian)
    • Article HomePage
    • Built business-specific menus
    • Trained the Trainers (3 locations)
    • Marketed "new" features (compared to existing intranet)
  • Timing
    • Prototype: 2 weeks
    • Demo to early adopters / content providers: 2 months
    • Demo to Deciders: 3 months
    • currently in "test drive" mode (1 year)

Conclusion

Content is People …

  • You need authors
  • Authors need management and grassroots support
  • use all the intrapersonal links you have


… then Management …

  • Formal
    • "managed content" is the main added value from a KM perspective
    • Importance of Rankings / Stats
  • Informal
    • Catalyse „accidental“ content discovery
    • Communication, evaluation


… then the System

  • A feature-rich system is not a warranty of success
  • Tiki / CMS enables you to cover a multitude of requirements


Other examples shown (from TikiSitesBestOf):

Thanks for your attention!

Q&A