Emergent Conversational Technologies That Are Democratising Information Systems in Organisations: The Case of the Corporate Wiki

Together with Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) and mobile telephones, conversational technologies such as email, discussion forums, chatrooms, weblogs and wikis have been readily adopted in civil society and are transforming the way many of us access information. We now conduct transactions and connect with others anywhere and any time in our everyday lives. However, these transforming systems are often treated with suspicion by the organisations in which we work (frequently with outmoded ICT tools and limitations imposed by management on our social uses of email, telephone and the Internet in general). It is proposed in this paper that in the future the information systems (IS) discipline should pay increased attention to the adoption and impact of open cooperative technologies in the workplace. Since the 1970s, IS has endeavoured to take a distinctive scientific approach to representing the data and processes of large formal organisations in the design of computer based systems but we believe that IS cannot afford to get mired in issues to do with 20th century technology and must move on to a world where technology increasingly empowers the individual, with the potential consequence of democratising organisational information and knowledge.

Conversational technologies can be seen as tools to support work units and the individual knowledge worker. For this new breed of employee, it is as much part of their job to seek out, share and create knowledge as it is to perform work tasks. They need the skills, capabilities and authority, as well as Information and Communications Technology (ICT) support, to do this, thereby providing the firm with innovation and creativity. While this represents an obvious avenue for organisations to try to gain or increase their advantage over competitors, it also poses a challenge where employers and managers may have to relinquish some control in providing knowledge workers with appropriate resources, incentives and rewards. This is also a challenge for research and practice in the field of IS, which can no longer employ traditional analysis and design approaches to the new socio-technical organisational systems where knowledge workers may choose to use applications such as weblogs and wikis and develop them as end-users. This may be perceived as a threat to shift the core focus of IS research and practice but may rather be an opportunity for IS to re-invent itself to be more relevant for the 21st century.

In order to make this argument, we examine the issues, challenges and potential benefits arising from the prospect of implementing wiki technologies in corporate or government settings. Four cases are presented in which a wiki is being adopted or at least considered as a means to enable broad participation in knowledge management in a formal work setting. The cases are chosen to showcase a variety of corporate wikis in different developmental stages. The first case study records a failed attempt at setting up a wiki in a conservative organisation whose business is acquiring and transferring knowledge. The second case study examines the setting up a wiki for professionals in a state-wide government health department. The third case study explores the use of a wiki by a national Standards organisation for knowledge collection and dissemination among small businesses and, lastly, an evaluation is made of an existing wiki in the research division of a large private manufacturing organisation. The potential benefits and challenges in each case are described, leading to a general discussion of the democratising effect of wiki technology in the hands of individuals and the need for organisations to strike a balance between control and trust. The challenges and opportunities of this technology for IS practitioners and researchers are discussed in the following paragraphs.