Comments on: Wiki for tech pubs – ready for main dish status? Or still undercooked or side dish material?

By: DITA and wiki - w/ho/w will (we/you) write « just write click

DITA and wiki - w/ho/w will (we/you) write « just write click — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 03:06:15 +0000

[...] guess to answer my own question about where wikis fit in tech doc, I currently see wikis as supplemental, not source doc from which to make other things. I probably [...]

By: Contributing to wikis as a technical writer « just write click

Contributing to wikis as a technical writer « just write click — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 19:23:07 +0000

[...] researching an article for STC Intercom about wikis and technical documentation as discussed in my previous post. In about two years of my interest in the topic, I have only discovered a handful of examples of [...]

By: annegentle

annegentle — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 02:05:09 +0000

I think that there are many factors in the reliance on wiki for end-user documentation. As with other types of doc deliverables, a wiki’s necessity depends on the product being documented and the audience and consumers that need to read or edit the documentation.

I think that the risk of litigation can be mitigated with decent policies. Think of the few amendments you’d have to your support forum policy if it were expanded to include your wiki. For example, if a user tries to help another user on your support forum, there’s an understanding that your company is not intending to lead another user astray. The largest companies such as Motorola and Microsoft have finessed their legal policies to allow for wikis. They’re large enough, though, that the positive PR and vibes they can generate from a wiki would outweigh the potential risk of an erroneous wiki entry being published for a small length of time.

In time, depending on the technology documented by the wiki, the users may demand an open-edit policy on the documentation when very fast updates are required. Or users may demand the openess that a wiki offers. Time will tell, I suppose. I believe wiki use for end-user doc should probably be reserved for only certain suitable products and users.

By: Gordon

Gordon — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 10:08:51 +0000

I definitely don’t think a Wiki is viable as a standalone documentation repository. Unless, of course, you lock out most users from making changes but then you are countering the very principle on which Wikis are based.

We use them internally at our company and it works well as a place to store unofficial content, some of which is then taken and filtered by the technical writers, before being published to the world at large.

We may, someday, have an external Wiki to which customers can contribute, although the governance of such a thing is always the sticking point. Depending on your customer base, they might not accept a Wiki as being ‘official’ as it is not controlled and checked. Our product documentation is verified internally before being published, and that remains a comfort to our customers, I’m not sure they’d be happy if we didn’t offer that verification.

In short, how many millions of pounds/dollars MAY be at risk if you have an open set of documentation and a well meaning contributor gets some code syntax wrong!

They do have a place but, as you say, I think it’s very much a supporting role, similar to a forum or even a blog.

By: Tom Johnson

Tom Johnson — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 04:07:11 +0000

Hi Ann, I made a comment/response to your post here.

By: Wikis in Documentation: Ann Gentle Asks, Can Wikis Stand Alone, or Must They Be Supplements Only? | I'd Rather Be Writing

Wed, 27 Jun 2007 01:57:51 +0000

[...] Although wikis have been around for at least ten years, they are finally getting more attention. Ann writes, It’s funny, in an early blog post I wrote on the internal blogs at BMC I said that I did not see [...]