Apple Mac OS X Server v10.6 User Manual
Page 76
In a wiki, instead of copying content, you provide a link to the content. This solves all of
the issues listed above:
Because a single page contains the information, there are no issues related to
Â
syncing content.
If the reader is familiar with the page, they don’t need to reread the linked page.
Â
Instead of providing detailed information about how to find a document, you can
Â
directly link to wiki pages or documents.
The reader remains in a web browser and can easily navigate between pages.
Â
Keeping Interested Parties Aware of Project Updates
In a project that doesn’t use a wiki, project updates often come piecemeal in a variety
of formats.
For example, the project team might discuss a schedule or personnel change.
This change would be discussed at a meeting, transcribed in meeting minutes, and
then emailed to all interested people. People who don’t attend the meeting will
become aware of the change only if they receive and read the email.
There are several problems with this approach:
The person receiving the email might not be interested in the information.
Â
They could easily miss the information while looking for information they are
interested in.
If someone becomes interested in the information after the meeting occurs, they
Â
must search their inbox to find the latest version of the information. They could
easily find outdated versions.
When you send the email, you might forget to include someone who is interested
Â
in the information.
Having a project wiki solves these issues. Instead of sending meeting minutes through
email, post them to the blog. This way people can easily read all recent project
changes by looking through the blog.
In addition to posting meeting minutes to the blog, update key wiki pages such
as the schedule and personnel pages. If these pages are kept up to date, people
don’t need to read the blog—instead, they can view the key pages when they need
the information.
If everyone marks pages they’re interested in with a star, or keeps RSS feeds of
them, they’ll be aware of all changes, so you won’t need to explicitly choose who
to distribute information to when the project experiences a change.
76
Chapter 9
Streamlining Projects