Why do non-techies simply not "get" the idea of a wiki?
matt1: I'm in a very similar situation.We use Microsoft's Enterprise Information Management at my work. It was rolled out about a year ago and is now primarily used as a replacement for storing files. I started playing around with it and discovered, to my delight, that there's a built-in wiki feature.There's a huge place for it in our daily operations. It could save thousands of hours in the long run if we got only a few people to contribute. The problem is that second part: How do you get people to contribute?Here's my strategy:1. Privately create lots of stubs beforehand along with an intelligent structure for linking them together. Also add tons of how-to articles (because for non-technies, obvious isn't so obvious)2. Add pages that show how people could actually benefit from it3. Brief our management, stressing the benefits, and ask for them to push it within their organizations4. If all goes well, people will slowly start adding information. If even 5% of the employees contribute, it will quickly reach a tipping point and then explode in popularity.5. I'll continue to add and edit articles on a daily basis for the next few months regardless of the initial reaction6. Gradually make it the go-to point for certain types of information, forcing people to use it and see how useful it can beI'm at step #2 right now. I'll have the opportunity to brief the management in about three weeks.Also, I'm going to call it a "collaborative notebook" as that encompasses how people can benefit from it much more than calling it a wiki or knowledge base.The thing I've found is that even just telling people what I'm doing in basic terms is unclear. They hear "wiki" and go "wiki wiki wiki" and then nod their heads when I'm explaining things to them.What I've realized is that its not their fault if they don't understand what you're doing. Its your fault for not explaining it to them in a way that makes it clear.We'll see what happens... wish me luck.