Enhancing Library Publishing with Community & CMSs
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Learn how to quicken publishing cycles, boost teamwork, and improve content relevance in libraries using Wikis and CMSs. Explore challenges, strengths, and solutions to enhance community relations.
Enhancing Library Publishing with Community & CMSs
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Presentation Transcript
Wikis, CMSs, & Community Enhancing Publishing in Libraries by Michael Ritchey (Twitter: mtritchey)
Today’s Lesson • Overview of FamilySearch services • Challenges & strengths in 2006 • Solution Concept & Requirements • Quicken publishing cycle • Multiply content output • Boost teamwork, morale, community relations • Improve content design, quality & relevance
Some Background on Our Perspective • Family History Library & Research Support • Research Support: 50 questions/day by phone & e-mail • 80% of questions answered by volunteers • Our volunteers & customers are senior citizens • 2006: Customer Relationship Management (CRM) • CRM model: customer’s question routed to an agent • 4500 family history centers worldwide • CRM model is not scalable to help family history center volunteers • 2006: Knowledge Management System (KMS) • KMS closed to volunteers; obsolete content
Challenge: cover more places Research advice on FamilySearch Internet, 2006
Challenge: cover more languages Research advice on FamilySearch.org about countries in their native language, 2006
Challenge: Update content faster Research advice on FamilySearch.org revised 2001-2006.
Challenge: connect customers with experts How do I find birth records from Brazil? Sounds tough! I dunno (Yawn!) I wish I had someone to help!
Our time-tested model Implement old idea Achievedenial Fail
2006 Revelation: Headquarters can’t do it alone. Is there a better way?
Our Strengths as an Organization Expert staff
Expert staff World-renowned record collection Our Strengths as an Organization
Expert staff World-renowned record collection 60,000 volunteers Our Strengths as an Organization
Cover more places Cover more languages Update content faster Connect customers with experts Expert staff World-renowned record collection 60,000 volunteers Solution: Community! Challenges + Strengths = Community Strengths Challenges
Selling the concept: Wikipedia • 8thmost popular Website • Content written by community • 3,000 new entries per day • Most errors corrected in 5 mins. • 11 edits per article
Requirements • Open source • WYSIWYG authoring tool (yo mamma) • Article history/version control • Limit visibility of some articles • Volunteer authoring • Easy interlinking • Admin can lock down a page (Home page) • Notifications • System deployable by non-engineers!
FamilySearch Wiki: Plone site Questions of concurrent authoring scalability
Challenge: Update content faster Every revision required input from • Director (approval) • Publication strategist • Usability specialist • Technical writers • Editors • Correlation • Software engineers
Update content faster on a wiki Shortens the publishing cycle… …from months to minutes. • Get an idea • Add it to the wiki • Get input • Iterate
Multiply Content Output • 800 19,000 docs since 2007 • 82,000 edits in 2009 (as of 10/04/09) • Top contributors have 10k-16k edits ea. • 2009 edits = 719,000,000 characters • 6,900 characters/edit avg. • Top pages have 300-500 edits • Reference librarians writing 22,000 hours/year
Teamwork, Morale, Community • Collaborative projects • Unfettered Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) • SMEs reach out for project help • Collaboration between community vols. & staff • Weekly user group/community meeting on Adobe Connect
Quality • Footnotes • Bylines • Change history • Discussion pages • Patrollers • Moderators • Watch lists & change notifications • Members are Pit Bulls • Community Meeting
Learnings • Relinquish control • Initiate projects with small teams; require 70% consensus for redesign • Govern by social constraints, not system constraints • Let community try any miscreants • Invest lots of time w/ community • Share success metrics to win support & resources • Empower, train & support volunteer project leaders
Today’s Challenges (Got advice?) • Not getting 25% of librarians’ time • Wiki mgrs. spread too thin to manage content dev • Empower & train community as project mgrs. • Experimenting w/ right mix of project mgmt. vs. production • Democracy design paralysis. Limit re-work! • Projects: Small team makes initial design; later design changes require 70% consensus.
Conclusion: We are smarter than me! • The job is too big for Headquarters • Volunteer communities can do big jobs • Success = community collaboration
wiki.FamilySearch.org Twitter: @mtritchey