Musings of a GCPEDIAC: Wikicommunity

I once remarked on Twitter: "Our internal SharePoint doesn't excite me the way GCPEDIA does. The SP is useful, but it doesn't have 'community'". A community—a unique culture; a perceptible camaraderie; an interest in watching, learning from, and helping others—is what transforms a software platform from a tool of potential productivity to an ecosystem of thriving creation.

I still struggle to stay attached to our internal SharePoint. It's a tool that I know I should use, and one that I know how to use, but not one that I really feel drawn into using.  I know there are others out there that have this same feeling about GCPEDIA.

When I think back to the first time I edited a wiki, I can pinpoint the moment where I felt like I'd stumbled across something great... something that I really wanted to remain attached to.  Actually, there were several key moments, but each was of the same theme: Someone noticed that I was there, and spontaneously made contact.

I was brand new to editing a wiki, and writing my very first article. After I'd let it sit for awhile I noticed that another user had created a custom graphic for the article and had inserted it without asking.  I could have been annoyed by this. I've observed over the years that some wiki users regard a wiki simply as an editable website.  They place large banners at the top of their pages asking them to be left alone. Some even ask administrators to lock pages down so they can't be changed anymore.

Not me. Even then, I really understood that the whole point of a wiki was spontaneous collaboration... reaping the benefits of un-requested and unexpected expertise.

I was thrilled.  I went to that user's talk page and left them a thank you message. We continued like that for some time, trading edits and messages.  Seven years later he is still a friend of mine.

Meanwhile, another user—an administrator—noticed that I was working  diligently but that my user page was pretty bare.  He left me a small contribution award template for me to add to my page.  It was another small but significant push: someone else had noticed what I was doing, and even though they couldn't contribute to my work, they let me know that my work was noticed.

Without really saying an anything, these two users really illustrated what was great about wikis as a platform: the capacity for spontaneous collaboration, observation of what others are working on, and potentially instant recognition, feedback, and communication.

It was all the example I needed.  I threw myself into helping and contacting others in just the way that I'd been helped. I made more friendships, I created much more content, I learned more about the wiki software as people began to approach me with more complex problems.  I also continued to rely on my own contacts who had been there longer and who knew much more than I did.

The roots grew underneath me and took firm hold without me realizing it.  Suddenly, I had a reason to come in everyday even if I didn't have a project to work on that day: I had friendships, and mentorships, and a sense of belonging.  I had expertise I knew I could share, provided I had a look around to find someone who needed it.  Some days I was too busy and I only had the time to login and respond to my talk page messages, but I still had the will. After all, my colleagues were there. All of my best work was there. All of the information and inspiration I needed was there, growing and changing every day.

A collaboration platform is just software. The wiki was my virtual office,  my boardroom, my classroom, my water cooler, my community.

GCPEDIA already has a good core of sysops and a community of peer helpers. Collectively, we need to be more proactive. At present, there is a "New user message" welcome script that leaves an anonymous welcome and help document on the talk pages of new users.  I think a spontaneous personal greeting to anyone new you notice would go a long way.  If you have a block of time, check out the New user log and leave a personal welcome for a new user. Scan Recent changes to see what others are working on, and donate some of your time doing copyediting or adding content for a stranger. Leave talk page messages for users you know, or other GC employees you'd like to meet.

GCPEDIA is an amazing tool, but it's a tool whose magnitude can overshadow itself unless we, the people, make an effort to loom even larger. No-one is interested in learning yet-another-tool, unless it can distinguish itself as one worth the effort to stick with.

Help your colleagues to give GCPEDIA the chance it deserves.

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Posted in: collaboration,engagement,GCPEDIA,Government of Canada

Goodnight, princess

Goodnight, princess, originally uploaded by toddlyons.

Last June I wrote about Brandy. She’s special in more ways than I could tell you… She’s the first American I ever loved. She’s been my friend and constant companion for nearly 11 years. She was my first pet as an adult. She was my baby before my own children were born. And I have to let her go... (more at trl.ca.)

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Musings of a GCPEDIAC: What makes a great sysop

It's been a great year for GCPEDIA so far. I only wish I had more time to engage with it personally.  As you can see from the lapse between this post and my previous writings about my favourite wiki (or indeed, any blogging at all), I've been busy.

But the wiki has chugged along just fine without me. More users every month and increasingly more complex documents are making the Recent Changes log fly by faster than ever... so much so that I felt compelled to add a bit of code to the wiki to highlight the sysop names in the activity log, just to make sure that there were enough staff online to help the users. (For the record: no problems there.).

One of my very favourite collaborators, Jesse Good, returned to the fold back in January after finishing school, and promptly turned the wiki on its side with his simultaneous injections of content, culture, and fun.  Meanwhile, another of my long-time favourite users, Catharine Au, was finally goaded into accepting a position as a sysop after humbly refusing it before, much to my disappointment.

Come to think of it, Jesse (who is now pursuing another degree!) also initially refused adminship, but was eventually persuaded to wear the hip-waders and galoshes that sysops don from time to time to do the necessary but non-too-glorious maintenance chores...

I think his reluctance (and Catharine's) is significant, as is the type of wikicitizens they are even without sysop powers.

Funny but true: what I've observed as a wiki sysop since 2005 and as a BBS sysop in the 15 years before that is that hardworking users who are the least interested in administrative powers are—almost without exception—the best administrators in practice. My favourite "sysops" have always been users like Jesse and Catharine: ones that involved themselves with every aspect of the site, from the technical tinkering to the community engagement aspects. There's an awful lot of work that you can do on a wiki without having sysop powers.  Whenever I see someone that's realized that and put it into daily practice, I know I've seen another candidate for sysop.

On a wiki the size of GCPEDIA, there's a lot of room for different personality types across roles—including sysops that do nothing but work on the content management—but I think there's a natural leadership role that is a vital part of wiki administration.

If you have the keys to the system, people are bound to gravitate to you for help. Having a genuine interest in people and a sincere desire to help them with what they need, at whatever level they are, makes it so much easier. Some technical types really work best with the software and hardware only. Honestly, I appreciate and understand this. As a degreed social worker and life-long geek, one of the things I love most about technology it that it presents problems that are logical, non-emotional, and solvable (even if the solution is a complete replacement of hardware or software). User administration couldn't be more different.

But GCPEDIA is currently thriving with a small but powerful core of people-focused-sysops, and because of that the software and its users stand to benefit so much.

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Posted in: GCPEDIA,sysop