March 18, 2010 Social Knowledge Management in an Academic Research Environment: A Case Study Kimberly Silk, MLS Data Librarian

Agenda  About us: Who is the Martin Prosperity Institute (MPI)?  Our Challenge  MPI Portal 1.0  Why it’s not *quite* right (and some days, awful)  What we learned, and what we’re doing next  A sneak peak of the latest prototype

What is the Martin Prosperity Institute?  We are an academic think tank that studies global prosperity in terms of location, place and city regions. Led by Director Richard Florida, we take an integrated view of prosperity, looking beyond economic measures to include the importance of quality of place and the development of people’s creative potential. We’re part of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, Canada.

Who We Are: The Research Team

Our Collection

Our Challenge: Collaboration, with Control

Who will use this site?

Requirements & Challenges

Our Quick & Dirty Evaluation Process

SharePoint: WSS vs. MOSS

Our Short-term Solution: MS SharePoint (on the cheap) SharePoint was an Easy Win (for now): Free! Already installed on server Compliant with our IT dept Great document mgmt Version control Integration with MS Office Secure Multi-level user access Accessible via web Quick to implement Free!

MPI Portal 1.0

The Verdict: SharePoint works … sort of What Works: Great integration w/ MS Office Web-based interface is available anywhere Version control is very good Easy to roll back to previous versions Easy to see who edited the document last What Doesn’t Requires users to log in repeatedly; no single-sign- on Dependent on IE browser; other browsers render the page incorrectly Limited features, especially when wanting to add feeds and other external content Heavy simultaneous use causes it to freeze; Users have to remember to access all their work via SharePoint Limited social media tools No fun!!

In the meantime, we tried these other tools … and we like them!

What We Learned about Iterative Design & Rapid Prototyping 1. We began by thinking about content, and organization, which are both important; 2. Diving in without any planning or strategy provided us with a great way to learn about how we work, both online and offline; 3. SharePoint works, although it’s not completely successful; 4. We didn’t think enough about the most important component: people.

Moving towards Social Knowledge Management KM is not just about managing knowledge; it’s about mining the social interactions that create knowledge. We want to capture knowledge, and then place it in a context to the people who have created it, and have and will use it.

How to Improve SharePoint? SharePoint exists, is used, and it’s great for document management. But, the usability leaves a lot to be desired, and it offers very few social media tools. How to take advantage of the strengths, and improve on the deficiencies? Rewarding User Experience

What We’re Trying Now Can proprietary and open source software get along??

The Best of Both Worlds SharePoint It’s already installed, and our files are already there Our users are familiar with it Our IT dept supports it (MS platform) Lots of space Excellent security Confluence Better user experience (UX) Easy to add social media Easy to add external content Personal spaces that are easy to customize Lots of plugins Why Integrate? Cross-product searching Content sharing between SharePoint and Confluence Take advantage of the easy-to-use Confluence interface, and still have our documents and data supported by IT.

And now: a sneak peek of the MPI Portal 2.0 (drumroll, please!)

Who Else is Doing This? Join Me! SharePoint and Confluence are not the only solutions. What are you trying? I’m looking for a community of practice – There are lots of corporate KM groups out there, but not many in the academic space – I’m looking for a group of like-minded colleagues who want to explore these issues with me, and find solutions – Is anyone else connecting Confluence and SharePoint? Are you in? me at

Thank You Kimberly Silk, MLS