Part 1 of 4
Introduction
The last assignment for our LIBR 246 class under Prof. Debbie Faires is for each student to submit a project based on a Web 2.0 technology or topic that we are passionate about and that would put to use what we have learned in the course. The project can be a web project like setting up a virtual library, or scripting a Facebook application. And it can also be a paper on trends and issues involving Web 2.0 technologies like copyright, security, and privacy issues. Each student needs to submit project proposals on what they want to work on for approval by the 2nd week of April and has up to the 10th of May to deliver the final product. As a final component of this project, we are also submitting our personal statement on the whole experience of working on the project. This project journal would chronicle the process of how we completed the project, sources consulted and used, challenges faced, and future possibilities to explore. I decided that it is just fitting to document my experience in a series of posts in this blog which have been my journal of the other activities that we have done in the LIBR 246 course.
Proposal
In the project proposal I submitted to Prof. Faires, I indicated that I want to work on creating an intranet-file depository site that would feature a more cohesive system of managing content that organization’s produced in going about its business. I mentioned how some organizations are faced with the dilemma of managing the knowledge or content it produces that can be mostly attributed to the delivery and storage systems that these organizations uses. For instance, before the advent of Web 2.0 technologies, it is not uncommon for an organization to use a static web page as its intranet. Then use email as a means of communication like announcements, delivery system for files, memos, or meeting minutes, or for project collaboration. And finally, use a network drive as a depository of more files like forms, procedures, etc. This set up can lead to content to grow unwieldy and lead to duplication of files, document version conflicts, accidental deletion of files, and time-consuming searches. This becomes even more problematic for an organization that is constantly evolving and improving its policies and procedures, or adding new information facets that did not exist before. This growth is exponential, as the organization grows; its content generation grows even faster. Soon enough you will have a situation wherein project files are located in different document folders or in different staff member’s email inbox. Then there would also be instances wherein information on how to accomplish certain task is known only to certain staff members and no written procedure exist for the rest of the staff to refer to; or if it does exist, it resides in a staff member’s document folder or email inbox. This becomes a tragedy when that information does not get transferred when said staff leaves the organization.
In my proposal I indicated that I intend to use MediaWiki to develop a content management system with the following objectives:
1. Provide a format that is intuitive in terms of sharing and maintenance of content created for an organization’s use.
2. Provide a solution to problems of file duplication, naming convention, file integrity, and information dissemination.
3. And provide a way to control and track content revisions.
The intent being, to present the project as a proof of concept that Web 2.0 technologies are more than capable to replace more traditional means of content collaboration, sharing, storing and access in an organization to bring about a more cohesive way of managing organizational content.
I also indicated in my project proposal that I plan to use the current organization I work for as the template for my project. For anonymity’s sake I will refer to said organization as PAL. As a library system with five branches, PAL is a very dynamic organization generating new content in the form of weekly meeting minutes by the different departments and services, email, incident reports, project files, new procedures and policies, forms, web content, schedules, statistics survey reports, budget documents, and many more. Content creation, sharing and storage are handled by its own intranet which is also linked to the main organization’s intranet, a network drive, several blogs (which was discontinued a few months back) and email. The server for the network drive is managed and supported by the city’s IT desk, but the library also have its own library technologist that takes care of most of the coding for the library automation software and the library-specific intranet.
Of course, these are the electronic content of the organization as there are also hard copies that are exchanged via the inter-mail facility that the larger organization provides and kept by the different location on-site. For purposes of this project I will only focus on the electronic content generated by PAL.
continued on Part 2