I think that there are a few things that make it hard to get a wiki up & running.

• The term "wiki" itself seems to put some people off - we have had a few discussions about it here at Bundy, and if I was setting up a new one from scratch, I'd probably refer to it as the "Knowledge Management System" or something like that.
• Apathy - I think that wikis have the potential to revolutionise collaboration in the work place, and reduce duplication of effort, but a lot of people just don't care if the wheel gets reinvented every second year, as long as they are getting paid.
• Ashish, I think you are right about the "Control" issue, a lot of people are unwilling to trust others to do the right thing and self-moderate, and just don't get the philosophy of getting information out there even if it is only 80% correct, and then relying on people viewing the information to correct it over time.
• Fear of wiki syntax. Wiki Syntax isn't that hard. I'm sure I could teach a 11 year old the basics in a few hours, but some people seem to be scared off by it.

Having said all that, I think that in 5 or 10 years time, collaboration in the work place using wikis and other collaboration software will become the norm, and that if we keep chipping away here, and on our Council systems, and elsewhere we will eventually succeed in winning more people over to the wiki concept.

I agree. I also experienced lack of commitment (as tried using Sharepoint for knowledge share/collaboration - which GCCC has already invested in). I have personally shown most of staff (in my branch of approx 50 staff). But only few tried reading it, let alone contribute.

As WIKI does not meet requirements of ISO 9001 (International Standard for Quality
Management Systems) accreditation for quality control over documentation, it won’t be supported (and will be easily opposed).

The whole fundamental of control documentation is contradict to anyone can edit and contribute philosophy of wiki. So, I do not know how will it be justified to use it for official/business purposes?

Regards,
Ashish

Wikidot doesn't have a flowchart module, but there are a few options for adding flowcharts to a site.

• The easiest way is to convert a flowchart to a jpeg image and include it on a page as you did with the Gold Coast Map on Gold Coast City Council Page.
• You can also upload a pdf file and provide a link to it.
• Lastly you might be able to find a site like Zoho that allows you to publish documents, and include them on a website. I have used this approach here can create a chart here, but I haven't tried to do a flowchart this way yet. I will do a bit more research and get back to you if work out a simple way of doing it.

I don't know a lot about ISO 9001, but I am happy to answer any questions that I know the answer to!

I really appreciate the idea. However, I have a few questions on this in regards to Quality Management accrediation (ISO 9001) requirements to be used as Council wide or branch wide knowledge share or Operations Manual (containing Procedures and Processes)?

Does it support/have flow charts etc?

One type of software I didn't really think to add until very recently is Wiki software itself. Bundaberg Regional Council has been using MediaWiki for a few years now and as of today the BRC wiki contains over 10,000 pages of information, and it is a very useful resource for Council staff. I am very interested to hear what if any wiki systems other Councils are using. I'd love to be proved wrong, but I have a strong suspicion that not many other Councils are using wikis at all.

Wikis are easy to use, useful, and quite often free, but there are a perhaps a couple of reasons why they aren't being used more. I suspect that being a relatively recent innovation (they have been around since 1995) not everyone knows much about them, how to set them up, how to use them or what to use them for.

Being a "wiki evangelist" I'd love to see them being used more, and I think the way to do that is to show people what they can do, and to make it easy for them to set one up. This website itself is one example of how a wiki can be used, but I think it is only part of the story.

The main reason I set this site up this was to share information that I thought was of general use to Councils everywhere. A lot of it was already documented on the Bundaberg Wiki, and I thought it was a shame it wasn't available to more Councils. On the other hand about 80% of the information on the BRC wiki is Bundaberg specific information that no one else would be particularly interested in, photos and data about assets, Bundaberg specific processes & procedures, and that sort of thing. Although the data itself is of limited interest to others, most people from other Councils and organisations that have seen the BRC wiki, are quite impressed with what we have done, and a few have expressed an interest in setting up something similar for their organisation.

I have thought about this quite a bit recently and I have come to the conclusion that whilst it is easy enough for a Council to host a wiki on their own server and set it up in a similar fashion to Bundaberg, there are a number of advantages in using Wikidot (the site that hosts the LGAM Knowledge Base) to host a network of Council specific wikis.

1. Wikidot offers a free hosting option that is more than generous enough to host a sizable wiki.
2. It is possible to clone an existing wikidot site and hand the copy of it to a new user which makes it very easy to start of with a functional wiki instead of a blank slate.
3. The sites can be configured to be either publicly viewable, or only viewable by wiki members.
4. Once a few Councils set up wikis it will be very easy for them to feed of each others ideas.
5. It will allow me easily to help anyone to set up their site and get it going.

To get the ball rolling I have started copying a few pages from the BRC Wiki to a new Wikidot wiki to designed to show the sorts of things that could be included in a Council Wiki - it is early days yet, but if you are interested in having a look, the site address is: http://brc1.wikidot.com.

I have also set up a blank version which I am happy to give you a copy of to get you started - http://extranet.wikidot.com

If you are even half interested in setting up a wiki for your Council, please let me know, and I will help you out as much as I can.