Week 3- Journal Assignment

What uses might a collaborative wiki or blog have in your chosen (current or desired) work environment? How would they support learning and/or performance? What would be the design and implementation challenges if management tried to do this? What would be the design and implementation challenges of a user-initiated effort?

A wiki has the strong potential to become a great knowledge base for any industry. While not only providing a place for information to be compiled by veteran members for access by junior members, a wiki knowledge base can also act as a tool for promoting informal learning within a company. Additionally, participation in a wiki is a good way for members to have incentive to participate as their information is used and recognized.

Blogging also could have a similar effect. The tricks, techniques, and ideas of members can be shared with others within individual member blogs. Particularly good blogs can be highlighted so that users can find some of the most useful blogs quickly, which would also give the same mentioned recognition to contributors.

Difficulties with implementation of both can range from simple to complex. At the simple end, a basic wiki structure can be provided, and a blogging site made with information on how to sign up for either provided. At the more complex, and most likely more effective, range of difficulty would involve the wiki or blog creation, steps to access and how to use both, incentives created for participation, and easy and useful tools available for users to create, search, and edit items. Additionally, technical support, either in the form of electronic text, peer support, or an IT department branch for users to gain more knowledge and to ask questions or have problems addressed.