Knowledge Management for an IT Department? 90
Laurentiu asks: "In every IT department out there there's a wealth of heterogenous information floating around: code snippets, HOWTOs, FAQs, docs, spreadsheets, post-it notes etc. Asking Joe where he put that file won't work forever. So what is, in your experience, a good way to manage this knowledge? And what software would you recommend for such a task?"
Spotlight (Score:1)
Bongos. (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Bongos. (Score:1)
Re:Bongos. (Score:1)
MediaWiki (Score:5, Informative)
Re:MediaWiki (Score:5, Informative)
Re:MediaWiki (Score:3, Funny)
Okay, I give up
Re:MediaWiki (Score:2)
Re:MediaWiki (Score:1)
Re:MediaWiki (Score:1)
Re:MediaWiki (Score:4, Informative)
They have a Wiki Engine Comparison [wikiwikiweb.de] page that was useful for helping us decide which one best fit our needs.
Re:MediaWiki (Score:2)
Re:In case you're like me... (Score:1)
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=heteroge
To 'e' or not to 'e', reference.com at least doesn't give a shite.
Re:In case you're like me... (Score:1)
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&client=saf
We... (Score:1, Funny)
When we need to know something at work, we call TripMaster Monkey! He knows everything!
RE: We... (Score:2, Funny)
Post everything to usenet (Score:1, Funny)
Seems to work for me (Score:2)
Re:Seems to work for me (Score:1)
I do support for Sun, and if I had a dollar for every time I had some admin tell me the equivalent of "these settings are in /etc/system because some guru in the mists of time put them there and I'm afraid to take them out" I'd be a very wealthy man (and probably not working for Sun any longer :-)).
Re:Seems to work for me (Score:2)
Re:Seems to work for me (Score:2)
Re:Seems to work for me (Score:2)
Easy Automated Snapshot-Style Backups with Linux and Rsync [mikerubel.org]
rsnapshot is a filesystem snapshot utility for making backups of local and remote systems. [rsnapshot.org]
Wiki? (Score:2)
Wiki (Score:3)
If security is a concern look for a business suited Wiki like TWIKI (twiki.org) which includes access levels and such.
Re:Wiki (Score:1)
Re:Wiki (Score:1)
Google (Score:4, Informative)
-Rick
Re:Google (Score:3)
Google's Desktop search really works well for me, is very fast, and has saved me TONS of time loooking for information. And the fact that it'll also index mapped network drives is a boon.
Network Indecies (Score:2)
-Rick
Ask IBM! (Score:1, Informative)
Organizational, not technological problem (Score:2)
Ahem (Score:2, Informative)
Use a Wiki - MoinMoin (Score:3, Interesting)
Software: moin-moin http://moinmoin.wikiwikiweb.de/ [wikiwikiweb.de]. It worked well enough, easy to install, and it was easy to set up credentials and permissions for groups on the diretory and page level for editing and even visibility. It's easy to get in and make simple changes to the code and there's a bunch of modules available of varying quality, though.
Funny anecdote, our group's manager pulled a Lundberg: "I uhh like the program and it works well, but is there a WYSIWYG editor for it?" [Although somewhat idiosyncratic, Wiki markup is trivial to learn and use, HTML looks like C++ in comparison.]
Re:Use a Wiki - MoinMoin (Score:3, Interesting)
My manager is constantly frustrated that he doesn't know enough HTML to change the font in UseMod Wiki, and I keep reminding him that he is wasting his time trying to nitpick the fucking font on a single page in a website used by 10 people. He may as well ask for the icon in cornflower blue.
Re:Use a Wiki - MoinMoin (Score:2)
Still, to someone in accounting, hr or marketing it can be too much to ask. Sure, the original question pertained to IT depts, but in order to leverage to a whole company, a simple WYSIWIG editor would mean improvement by an order of magnitude.
Re:Use a Wiki - MoinMoin (Score:2)
Sure, wiki markup is pretty simple but I wish there was a standard wiki language. They all seem to use different markup. Plus, sometimes the simplistic wiki markup can be limiting in the type of formatting that it allows you to do.
This looks interesting:
http://ww [wikiwyg.net]
Search (Score:4, Insightful)
Doesn't have to be Google though - there are a pile of tools (htdig etc) that you can use to crawl your kb and provide a basic search ui.
Re:Search (Score:2)
Re:Search (Score:2)
Who modded this "Flamebait" ? (Score:2)
Re:Search (Score:2)
More features than Google one and cheaper too. Searches network shares, FTP and web sites and now databases and soon archived CDs/DVDs.
CXM - CollaborationXManagement (Score:1)
At the risk of making this sound like an advertisement...
For the past 1 year, my company has been working on a solution for in-house knowledge management and collaboration/groupware for an organization. Our solution integrates the above with SMS notification, SyncML synchronization (calendar, contact list and todo list) for mobile devices as well as a web based email system. Since we develop it in-house, we are able to customize it for our clients.
If you're looking for a commercial product, you can find
Re:Adobe.... (Score:3, Insightful)
Plone Help Center (Score:4, Informative)
While we are probably going to end up with SharePoint (which isn't a bad collaboration tool if all your fellow staff members know is Word, Excel, and PowerPoint), I personally like the Plone Help Center [plone.org]. You can see examples on the Plone web site [plone.org] or on my personal web site [irtnog.org].
usenet? (Score:4, Interesting)
I started in vax/vms with 'vaxnotes' and there was the notion of a base topic and its replies. it was simple, but it held the knowledge of DEC in a reasonable fashion, for many people, for many years.
then in the unix world, there was nntp/usenet. same basic idea. and also ascii-based. it scaled well and it worked well (and was well understood and simple enough to manage).
its worth considering. you can enable 'news' on linux boxes as clients (browsers) and servers. people can add (and edit and delete) content and its simple, free and best of all, it works.
Sudden adoption of WIKI (Score:3, Interesting)
One file per host (Score:1)
Wiki, yes, but what about the other documents? (Score:2)
Re:Wiki, yes, but what about the other documents? (Score:1)
As for big repositories of say PDF manuals a good old directory tree is fine:
Manuals/
Manufacturer/
Model/
manual.pdf
Re:Wiki, yes, but what about the other documents? (Score:2)
I think the search is built on top of some windows indexing service, so presumably it has whatever limitations that has in terms of document types.
Re:Wiki, yes, but what about the other documents? (Score:2)
New Software coming soon...Polis (Score:1)
My friend,for the past year has been creating a group collaboration/knowledgebase/project management/messaging/file management/group productivity software that will enable users to store and share information in a free-form, secure, linkable, fully searchable and easily updateable knowledge base that's perfect for jotting and sharing all sorts of information. Create a page on any topic at all; add pictures and links. Editing a page is just like using a
The answer is not software. (Score:4, Insightful)
Google, Wiki, Notes and similar machinery are all well and good, but if you just let everybody stuff documents into the system, you'll end up with a large, undifferentiated heap of files in a dozen or more different formats. Ever tried searching for an Excel workbook with Wiki? A Visio file? An obscure CAD package file? An old CD-ROM of critical documentation in a proprietary format?
Managing documents is quite hard to do - fairly close to programming in terms of the skills needed. It doesn't happen on its own. It requires a cluey person who understands the business and the documents, who can classify and index the material as it comes in, and record where it is so that it can be found.
At the very least, it's a process that requires considerable thought, planning, and management. It needs to be viewed in that light - not "which search engine should I use?"
Re:The answer is not software. (Score:2)
There are many ways to share information - wikis. bbs, lotus notes, exchange folders etc. Unfortunately many of them require a cultural change. In many companies everyone hords info and stores it in their my documents or email. Any solution that you implement in this case will ultimately fail.
Re:The answer is not *just* software. (Score:3, Interesting)
My company is currently centralizing all of its IT functions from the 42 Europe-wide sites it has. Knowledge management is a nightmare, as the institutional knowledge is spread too thin among the old timers to make any impact for the new people. We have some processes documented, but by far not all of them. We decided we needed a written repository of knowledge, as we are growin at a rate where we can not afford to waste time.
We finally decided on MediaWiki, just like some of t
Re:The answer is not software. (Score:2)
KnowledgeTree or DocuShare (Score:1)
http://www.ktdms.com/ [ktdms.com] -- Open Source
or
http://www.docushare.com/ [docushare.com] -- $$$$$$$$ Xerox $$$$$$$$
Enterprise Wiki (Score:2, Interesting)
Confluence is just software ($4K + $2k/year); no hardware or hosting.
From the founders of Excite: http://www.jotspot.com/ [jotspot.com]
Jotspot sells hosting w/ SSL ($9-$250/month) or remotely maintained appliances ($10K-$15K/year); no software.
BusinessWeek's choice: http://www.socialtext.com/ [socialtext.com]
Socialtext sells software and hardware but no hosting (Can't remember the price range right now).
You might also want to look into search appliances such as Google's enterprise
Re:Enterprise Wiki (Score:1)
Some suggestions (Score:1, Informative)
I'm still grappling with this. I've had some success in a previous company using TWiki to capture basic documentation. Its biggest drawback was a lack of document management. That said, the documentation I put in there is still being referred to and used. I think they were looking at moving to documentum (as a seperate project within the company) and were looking to see what wiki style functionality they could
Wiki + indexing (Score:1)
Use Plone (Score:2)
There is a special product, Plone Help Center, that can help you organize things. Have multiple PHCs (they act as folders), and you can categorize things based on meta-subjects. You can even use it to index and search your doc/pdf/xls files.
Hope this helps
Documentation Product (Score:1)
Departmental Gmail account (Score:4, Insightful)
Google search appliance... (Score:3, Interesting)
I have done a basica architecting of a solution that I think would work excellently. Its all based off a Google Search appliance...dump the docs in a few directories tell the Mini google to go to town....
Now users can google for what they need!
LORE KB (Score:1)
Taxonomy is knowledge glue (Score:2, Interesting)
(1)ditch microsoft office & outlook
(2)make everything visible
(3)make everything shareable
(4)taxonomy is knowledge glue
I just did this for all new projects, the solution is Drupal. Every project and sizeable task gets a chunk of taxonomy then you can catch the conversations in blogs, forums, wherever. All new, popular and recommended stuff is shown on a personal front page modelled on the DC.GOV website. All of this is also RSSified so it can go anywhere and be seen on a cellphone. There
ObPlug (Score:2)
The main advantages over wikis are security (transparent encryption and strong authentication), replication (set up local servers at each site for speed, and have them replicate data), indexing of Office and other proprietary file formats, a more sophisticated user interface, commercial support, and ability
Re:ObPlug (Score:1)
There are several comparable products that are less expensive as well, like FileNet [filenet.com] that can do similar type of functions.
Software doesn't work. (Score:2)
tilting at windmills (Score:3, Insightful)
Why should I produce good documentation anyway? So it's easier for you to fire me? What's in it for me?
I document the bare minimum and keep the rest in my head. My crib notes are so cryptic they might as well be Swahili to anyone else.
Oh, but the boss is insisting I write some documentation. No problem [kuro5hin.org].
Theoretically you could use the linked article to help you write good documentation, but I've never seen it happen.
If you really want to capture the state of your IT department, you need to lock everyone in a room with a gigantic whiteboard and start diagraming your systems. Get someone to take notes or digicam pictures or something. Encourage questions and heckling.
Edit those notes into something useable and let everyone criticize them. Once everyone is happy, do it again for the next system.
The above takes way too much time, so no-one ever has a complete picture of what/where/why/when.
following up to myself (Score:2)
The best tool in the world won't save you if your people aren't using it.
Re:tilting at windmills (Score:1)
I know a guy who knows a guy that had this same attitude. He would never document anything he did, keeping it all in his head, for job security. After a while he started wondering why he never got promoted. They couldn't promote him because no one else in the department could take over for him due to the lack of documentation.
In my experience, doing a good job (part of which is documenting what y
Re:tilting at windmills (Score:2)
Also, take a closer look at the linked article - it's about producing bad documentation that looks good. The whole idea is to fool your boss.
> In my experience, doing a good job (part of which is
> documenting what you do) is the closest thing you'll ever get
> to job security. If they want to fire you, they'll always find
> a way.
Sure, and they'll have a terrible time re-learning a bunch of things. You can't eat schad
Bondage (Score:1, Offtopic)
As long as they don't wear prosthetics.
xwiki, webnotes, and tiddlywiki (Score:1)
wiki madness (Score:1)
webnotes = for those who cannot part with the postit paradigm - free form postits in a browser - kinda cool.
tiddlywiki = for those who want a personal wiki that runs off your USB drive - really way of editing and storing data. When you leave a company you take your wiki knowledge with you.
http://www.xwiki.org/ [xwiki.org]
http://www.tiddlywiki.com/ [tiddlywiki.com]
http://www.aypwip.o [aypwip.org]
KM in IT (Score:1)
To find out what you need, analyse what is out there. How people/groups store information now. How is knowledge exchanged ? Where are the communication/documentation/knowledge transfer shortcomings ?
Try not to go down the path to create extensive, high maintenance directory structures. Use meta