Working Wikily: The Secret Life of A Wiki Gardener - It Ain't Just Weeding

Photo by one2c900d

This is part of series of reflections on what I am learning about working wikily through the WeAreMedia wiki.    In my last reflection, I talked about balancing participation on home base and outposts.  In this post, I'm going to take a deeper dive into the actual work tasks of a wiki gardener - it is a bit more than simply weeding.   

I created a 4 minute screencast with Jingproject that will give you a sense of the workflow.   I started to think about the gardening tasks using the metaphor of, well, gardening.   

1. Prepare your garden bed:  The garden bed is the actual page or section on the wiki where you want to get people to contribute content or where you'll place it after you scoop it from the outposts.   I create a page and it is a balancing act.  You need to avoid filling it up with too much content because people will think the page is complete and they have nothing to contribute or get overwhelmed.  On the other hand, if you give them a "naked" page - they won't have enough context to contribute easily - unless they are subject matter experts on the topic, have lots of time, and are highly motivated to contribute. 

I'm still learning that balance. But I usually start with a very short paragraph for context and leave questions or tables for people to fill-in.   The stuff that people like to contribute are:  their own links and brief descriptions, resources, and quick tips.   (Earlier in the project, I wrote about the different levels of contributions and engagement)

2.  Plant your seeds:   This is asking people to contribute.  I do this in several ways.  First, on the wiki's top page, I have include a "What We're Working On Right Now" (see here).  This stays fluid and try to point people to specific holes in the context or highlight good contributions.   In addition, this is how we let people know about new places to contribute:

• Blog Posts:  I do an overview post giving context and the questions.  I may follow up with a summary of what's been posted and point to specific holes.   The NTEN Blog also does a post.  In addition, folks who have signed onto the "Expertise Map" may also contribute a blog post to the module - which has turned out to be a superb way to build original content for the curriculum.

• Twitter:   I also use twitter to asks for specifics content chunks.  For example, yesterday, I asked for nonprofit examples of telling stories social media style.  I don't just ask questions, but eat my own dog food - engage people in conversations about it.  Take for example this, this, and that.

• Community Outreach:   We have over 100 people involved between wiki registered members(77), google group (82),  Swarm Lists (49), and Expertise Map (50).

3.  Tend To Your Garden - Water, Fertilize, and Weed:   After you do the first two steps, your content will start to grow and not very neatly.   You need to spend time in the garden walking the rows and observing.   So, for example after I asked for examples, I went back to the page and looked at it:

• I added "you can add more than one example" because someone asked me
• I noticed that the simple structure I created was not the right container and reorganized it.
• I noticed that people may be having trouble knowing how to add rows to the table, so I made a screencast.

4.   Harvest and Enjoy:  The next step with this is to summarize the content that has been added on my blog - as reward and ask for more - but try to get people to add it in the right spot and fill in the description.  Also, I flesh out the examples suggested via twitter. This might be good candidates for case studies.  So, I put them on a separate page and am trying to get folks to add their stories. 

So, that's a sneak peek into the secret life of a wiki gardener.    What's your best wiki gardening tip?  How do you make this work flow more efficient? 

See also Social Media Classroom

Comments

[Jeff McNeill]

Great use of the gardening metaphor for wiki work (and social media in general). Gardening of the content and the community together. Great image as well.

Cheers, Jeff

[Frances Bell]

Thanks Beth. There is nothing I like better than a gardening metaphor. I wondered about including the concept of self-seeding where a plants scatters seeds about it, then the gardener selects which of the seedlings are allowed to survive - design by selection!

[Emily Turner]

Hi Beth,

If we’re looking at this from the perspective of a head honcho gardener, I would add:

*Have a team of gardeners*

Wikis are collaborative by nature, having a several people to bounce ideas off and enable/enthuse each other really are invaluable. Practically, it’s also much more stable when the maintenance of the wiki isn’t reliant upon just one person – with a team, if one person is burnt out or busy, others can pick up the slack.

In addition, make the team a diverse one. Again, collaboration, multi-authorship and therefore diversity of information is a key element of wikis (IMHO); with different people leading the charge on your wiki, there’s more opportunity for these different ways of thinking, sources & types of information and opinions to come through and be represented.

Also, be constantly recruiting new editors (and gardeners). If you see something you think would go excellently on the wiki, encourage the author to contribute it, offer to put it up for them, or guide them through it. Encourage your gardeners and editors to do the same – they have different perspectives and sources for information than you do, they can find things and people that you may never be able to find. This is done on a personal level – interact with your community outside of the wiki, communicate with people directly, don’t just broadcast your activities.

This kind of behaviour all has a ripple effect; doing teamwork and inviting people personally and getting enthusiastic will get your editors to behave the same, and your wiki juggernauts on to success! The best community outreach is when you inspire people to be just as enthusiastic about the project and they go on to contribute and recruit through word of mouth in their own spaces and communities.

I think ultimately what this results in is a wiki that isn’t just a collection of topics that *you* know and want to educate others on, but a tool that educates *you*. As a gardener, you have to nurture and let your wiki *grow* :)

Emily