COMMUNICASIA, SINGAPORE--As surprising as it seems, employees of the venerable British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), have been using Internet technologies such as instant messaging (IM) and Wikis, to beef up their knowledge and better collaborate within the company's social culture.

Euan Semple was previously the head of knowledge management (KM) at the BBC. Now the managing director of Euan Semple, he spoke at the iX2006 trade conference Thursday and shared some real-world examples of how forums, user-created Wikis and blogs, written by management, helped enhance the flow of information and knowledge within the company. These tools also helped build robust social networks among the staff.

A simple online user forum for BBC staff, set up with software tools costing just 250 pounds (US$460), provided a platform for FAQs (frequently asked questions)--and for lurkers to learn from subsequent replies.

It also allowed the BBC's human resources department to respond to questions on corporate policies that were posed in the forum.

Wikis were also created to explain corporate policies, with BBC staff helping to fill in and update the relevant information and links.

Sempel said these initiatives gave the employees access to the decision-making process, although he noted that this added transparency would require the company to adopt some change management.

Now that employees have the ability to ask probing questions about company policies, this could have an impact on the decision-making process. "It is disruptive to the status quo of the company," he said.

Angela Beesley, a board member of Wikimedia Foundation, said enterprises should capitalize on the collaborative nature of Wikis and consider the tool as an alternative to e-mail, and much more.

"Wikis can be a cost-effective knowledge management tool," she said, during her address at the iX2006 conference. She added that the online tool can be used for other purposes, including drafting proposals and project management.

Companies too, need not worry about having to spend a large amount of money and resources to create Wikis, as there are service providers such as SocialText and JotSpot that can help create enterprise Wikis.

Beesley referred to mobile phone maker Nokia and investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, as companies that have done trials using Wikis as corporate tools.

She advised enterprises looking to tap Wikis as a knowledge resource to set key goals, and select the right enterprise Wiki engine for their organization. They should also provide training, and ensure that the Wikis are properly maintained.

Instant tool
Instant messaging, too, can be considered a vital toolkit in helping employees prepare for discussions with a client or colleagues.

For example, the Instant Lookup feature in Trillian, a software that allows various IM tools to be accessed via one interface, highlights keywords--as defined in a database--and allows users to mouse over the underlined word to reveal relevant information on it. Triliian downloads and displays the data from Wikipedia.

Scott Werndorfer, co-founder of Cerulean Studios which created the Trillian, said: "The keywords can be set by the enterprise, and can refer to stock quotes, buzzwords or inventory numbers."

"IM may be a consumer-driven business, but our technology is oriented for the enterprise," he added.

Werndorfer sees IM in the enterprise as a more informal and casual channel to communicate between employees and colleagues, while e-mail has become a more formal and official way to talk.

He noted that enterprises consider interoperability of the IM tool a major issue, as "you won't want your clients to worry about which [version of] IM to use when they want to contact you".

Werndorfer also warned that IM be treated with respect, as the lack of security in consumer versions of such tools makes them vulnerable to traffic or packet sniffers.

He stressed that enterprises should implement encryption to secure IM sessions across the corporate environment.

"The control has to stay within the enterprise," he said. "IM is just like any other pervasive technology, such as e-mail or the telephone. You need to rein it in and develop policies for managing IM, and educate your users."

Billy Teo is a freelance IT writer based in Singapore.

	Back to CommunicAsia

Post your message here