MOBHAILE -- After immersing in the way-Alpha Sharepoint-driven Mobhaile, I think it's actually Microsoft Sharepoint trying to be a wiki that is flogged as community webware. Most of its early adopters cannot spell either "mobhaile" or "wiki" and as Elizabeth Albrycht so appropriately puts it, they certainly won't be ready for the wiki approach to information management. As David Smith notes, this is not an unusual problem.
Mainstream wikis seve as information collections. Because they're wide-open, they are often abused by passersby. Leveraging Sharepoint Services, the Mobhaile version is password-controlled with facilities for private collections. The pass controls come at a speed cost. Behind the scenes and over a dial-up, every click into a Mobhaile function invokes a Sharepoint webpart. This is an Irish Superkludge of the first degree. It's workable and can be bolstered with speed tricks. At the moment, the technology puts a big load on a dial-up client. Those remote users are my immediate neighbours and they're used to waiting for the Internet to deliver results. I hope the Local Government Computer Services Board is watching and listenening. If they purport to serve the Irish Information Society through their Mobhaile Wiki, it means putting development time behind a community requirement. As part of that community and watching this latest foray into e-government enablement, I want value for money. Part of that metric is measured in responsiveness to community requests and follow-ups to IT development requirements.
Another part of the metric is in the uptake and follow-on use and that metric will be challenged by people who cannot figure out wikis. Wikis are inherently difficult hard work. To be used correctly, they need to be taught. The implementers need to understand how to use them.
During the past two years, wikis have gotten hard to use. Systems like MoinMoin, Bloki and Twiki require learning. And that could be a fatal flaw when working with people who do not have time available to collate information.
Another fatal flaw will occur when users want to try to get a special look. They will need some sort of visual editor to get the look they crave. John Porcaro in Microsoft Marketing uses Front Page to edit his work in Sharepoint but it's fair to assume that many from the community and voluntary sector in Ireland haven't been trained in any kind of authoring package. Most do not eat alphabet soup containing things like CSS or XHTML. They will find life under Mobhaile challenging. They would find life under Typepad refreshing.
Mobhaile is more than vapourware but way-Alpha for community groups. Here is my first attempt: http://dev.mobhaile.ie/regions/South Tipperary/INBITE/
David Smith -- "Why wikis may not work for you and me"
James Corbett is concerned.
Elizabeth Albrycht -- "Wikis getting attention"
John Porcaro -- "Blogging and Sharepoint"
Bill English -- "Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies Resource Kit (Pro - Resource Kit)" ISBN 073561881X
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