There continues to be much debate about whether and how to use social tools and social computing in organizations, and the effectiveness of open cultures and co-creation in order to foster innovation, flexibility, resiliency and responsiveness (see, for example, Bill Ives’ recent post titled The Next Step In Open Innovation From McKinsey). 

I have been known to suggest that the ubiquitous use of such tools and processes, and the need to understand how to facilitate and manage the new dynamics they engender, is inevitable … and need not be scary, overly difficult (except for the attitudinal and behavioural changes required

I came across a recent NY Times article (link below) about the growing use of wikis and blogs within the US State Department, an organization that clearly has interest in controlling its messages AND in understanding better how to use information, knowledge and brainpower to be effective.

Rather than try to analyze and explain, I have just selected quotes from the article that I believe make the point well.  I’d be interested to learn what you think.

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An Internal Wiki That’s Not Classified

NOAM COHEN
August 4, 2008

IN the past, said Stacie R. Hankins, a special assistant at the United States Embassy in Rome, when the ambassador prepared to meet an Italian political figure, the staff would e-mail a memo about the meeting and attach biographies of those who would be attending to be printed out.

Today, she said, they still produce the memo, but “now they attach a link to the Diplopedia article” — Diplopedia being a wiki, open to the contributions of all who work in the State Department. The ambassador, Ronald P. Spogli, frequently reads the biographies on his BlackBerry on the way to the meeting.

The advantages are obvious, in efficiency and in saving paper, but it has required a leap of faith, too. For, theoretically at least, anyone at the State Department could have edited the biographies Mr. Spogli was reading — unlike traditional resources.

[ Snip ... ]

“It’s grass-roots technology in a top-down organization,” said Eric M. Johnson of the State Department’s Office of eDiplomacy in Washington, who recently gave a talk about Diplopedia at Wikipedia’s annual conference in Alexandria, Egypt.

Since it was introduced in 2006, Mr. Johnson said, Diplopedia has had impressive growth. There are 1,000 registered users, he said, 650,000 total page views and lately 20,000 new page views a week, he said of the site, which contains no classified information but is not available to the general public. “It is one of the most popular sites in the State Department, other than getting your pay information,” Mr. Johnson said.

[ Snip ... ]

Even so, success to Mr. Johnson is defined not only by what can be found on Diplopedia but also what cannot. There have been no “flame wars,” he said, that is, mindless arguments over the phrasing in an article, and no pages that have needed to be deleted or locked down.

What if someone creates disinformation or vandalism? Mr. Johnson was asked in Egypt — a not-infrequent question when the topic of wikis comes up. He pointed out that unlike Wikipedia, Diplopedia does not allow anonymous contributors, so bad actors could be tracked down. He then observed, “There are plenty of ways to commit career suicide; wikis are just the newest one.”

There was a larger point to bringing his message to Wikimania 2008, as the annual conference is called: if wikis can work at the State Department, with its fabled bureaucracy and attention to protocol and word choice, they can work anywhere.

[ Snip ... ]

The decision to embrace wikis is part of a changing ethic at the department, from a “need to know culture” to a “need to share culture,” said Daniel Sheerin, deputy director of eDiplomacy, which was created in 2003. “This is a technological manifestation of a policy difference,” he said, a change he dated to when Colin L. Powell was secretary of state.

The eDiplomacy office also supports internal blogs at the department. It sent trainers to the embassy in Rome, for example, to teach the staff how to use Diplopedia. Since the training, Ms. Hankins said, the embassy has taken to it quickly, though the ambassadorial staff in Berlin is trying to surpass its biography total.

“There is definitely a learning curve of — I can’t believe I’m saying this — of my generation,” said Ms. Hankins, 37. “I like computers, but I wasn’t a big Wikipedia person.”

The advantage of Diplopedia, she said, isn’t necessarily the ease of creating new material, but the ease in finding information. “The political section used to keep biographies on political people, and the economics people kept biographies on economics people,” she said. “It was not always up to date. You didn’t always know what the other had.”

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It’s about finding and using pertinent information more quickly and more easily, and letting people do what they do best when addressing an issue using curiosity, common sense and a desire to do their work well. 

That’s it, that’s all … no ?

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Tags: hoerarchy, wirearchy, organizational effectiveness

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