How can a multi project organisation use Wiki to support improvement of knowledge management and project evaluation to become a learning organisation? The main purpose of this thesis is to give management and employees a better understanding of how Wiki supports knowledge management and project evaluation. The second purpose is to illustrate possible difficulties and pit falls that comes with the implementation of Wiki based learning. The theoretical framework initiates by explaining multi project organizations, then describes Argyris and Schöns theories about organizational learning and learning organizations. The second half of the theory chapter brings up theories about important areas for a learning organization. We have used a qualitative approach to gather profound data for the study. The empirical framework presents the fallout of the interviews we had with the studied company. Our study demonstrates how Wikis can be a great support to improve knowledge management and project evaluation. A Wiki functions as a knowledge repository that integrates divisions in an organization and facilitates to take part of, document and share knowledge. The study also demonstrates that problems can occur when implementing a Wiki. This is shown by managerial resistance due to the attitude towards knowledge management and an uncertainty about quality control of a Wiki’s content. To answer this resistance the employees can suggest a demonstration where they during a period of time use Wiki to describe when it could have benefited them in the daily activities. To be follow up with a trialperiod if the outcome is successful.

<p>Icke-kommersiella organisationer har fått en ökad betydelse för samhället vilket har medfört samhällsgranskning och kritik mot dessa organisationer. Utvecklingen kan leda till förändrade attityder för organisationerna med minskad kredibilitet som följd. Detta har en avgörande betydelse för deras utveckling och fortlevnad eftersom de interagerar med och är beroende av samhället. Ett alternativ för att bemöta den bristande kredibiliteten är Internet som via webbplatser tillhandahåller kommunikation med samhället både enkelt och ekonomiskt. Det har dock visat sig att icke-kommersiella organisationer ofta brister i uppdatering av dessa. Det finns således ett behov för dem att finna enkla och lätthanterliga verktyg för att administrera sina webbplatser. Ett möjligt sådant verktyg är det webbaserade redigeringsverktyget phpwiki. Denna studie undersöker hur detta verktyg kan integreras på en icke-kommersiell organisations webbplats för att underlätta administration. Undersökningen genomförs som en aktionsforskningsstudie baserat på ett antal cykler av observation, reflektion och analys dels ur ett praktiskt, dels ur ett teoretiskt perspektiv.</p><p>Det praktiska resultatet från studien är dels en integrerad version av phpwiki på webbplatsen, dels en manual för hur det webbaserade redigeringsverktyget phpwiki kan integreras på en icke-kommersiell organisations webbplats. Studien påvisar att phpwiki är ett alternativ för att bemöta bristande kredibilitet i form av dåligt uppdaterade webbplatser. Den bekräftar även kritik som riktats mot aktionsforskning men påvisar samtidigt att bra modeller, tekniker, ramverk och kunskap kan förebygga detta.</p>

<p>For knowledge intense companies the knowledge and skills of its employees are much more valuable than any physical assets. To share knowledge between its employees, some companies launch knowledge sharing initiatives which aims to spread best practices and increase the expertise of the employees. These initiatives are often supported by technical systems, repositories, which store the information that is to be shared. This report discusses how the value of such a repository, a Wiki containing reference cases of SOA projects at IBM Nordic, can be increased by using processes that aims to better connect it to the organization.</p><p>To do this, seven employees at IBM Nordic were interviewed. Four of them were sales people, the main user group of the Wiki. Two were employees at the SOA Acceleration Team, the group responsible for the Wiki. The last interviewee works at Learning and Knowledge, IBM’s internal department for organization-wide knowledge management and education. The answers were analyzed using a framework created using academic theory. This framework consists of four different areas of requirements for the processes connecting the Wiki to the organization. The analysis showed that for IBM the most important area to manage is enablement followed by governance, motivation and finally content.</p><p>The report is concluded with recommendations for five processes to connect the Wiki to the organization. The process Internal selling aims to inform the sales people about the existence of the Wiki and how they are to use it. Ensure search engine compatibility makes sure that the sales people are able to find the contents of the Wiki via the intranet based search engines. The process for adding a new case description ensures that new case descriptions which are added to the Wiki is consistent and contains the right kind of information. By validating the case information that is added to the Wiki the acceleration team verifies that the information is correct, increasing its credibility. In the last process, ensure information congruence, the members of the acceleration team updates the guidelines on what information to collect and the information in the Wiki as the information need of the sales people changes. This is done on a regular basis and ensures that the information that is collected and stored is actually useful.</p>

For knowledge intense companies the knowledge and skills of its employees are much more valuable than any physical assets. To share knowledge between its employees, some companies launch knowledge sharing initiatives which aims to spread best practices and increase the expertise of the employees. These initiatives are often supported by technical systems, repositories, which store the information that is to be shared. This report discusses how the value of such a repository, a Wiki containing reference cases of SOA projects at IBM Nordic, can be increased by using processes that aims to better connect it to the organization. To do this, seven employees at IBM Nordic were interviewed. Four of them were sales people, the main user group of the Wiki. Two were employees at the SOA Acceleration Team, the group responsible for the Wiki. The last interviewee works at Learning and Knowledge, IBM’s internal department for organization-wide knowledge management and education. The answers were analyzed using a framework created using academic theory. This framework consists of four different areas of requirements for the processes connecting the Wiki to the organization. The analysis showed that for IBM the most important area to manage is enablement followed by governance, motivation and finally content. The report is concluded with recommendations for five processes to connect the Wiki to the organization. The process Internal selling aims to inform the sales people about the existence of the Wiki and how they are to use it. Ensure search engine compatibility makes sure that the sales people are able to find the contents of the Wiki via the intranet based search engines. The process for adding a new case description ensures that new case descriptions which are added to the Wiki is consistent and contains the right kind of information. By validating the case information that is added to the Wiki the acceleration team verifies that the information is correct, increasing its credibility. In the last process, ensure information congruence, the members of the acceleration team updates the guidelines on what information to collect and the information in the Wiki as the information need of the sales people changes. This is done on a regular basis and ensures that the information that is collected and stored is actually useful.

This project presents an investigation into the viability of alternative knowl- edge acquisition strategies in knowledge management systems. The goal of this project is to illustrate that alternative means of knowledge acquisition can have a significant effect on the quality of the knowledge base. To accomplish this a modification of a wiki system, dubbed Prometheus, is proposed that uses a threshold based user vote acquisition mechanism. A simulation approach is used to compare a model of the Prometheus system against a model of a standard wiki system. A simulation framework is described that facilitates comparison between models of knowledge systems. The simu- lation framework is used to compare the knowledge systems in three different scenarios in an attempt to determine the conditions in which the Prometheus system may produce a higher quality knowledge base. The results of these ex- periments are presented along with some discussion and areas for future work.

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Multilingualism is a reality in South African classrooms. The Constitution of South Africa (Act 108 of 1996) and the national language policy recognize language rights and aims at supporting, promoting and developing the official languages. However, despite the advantages of mother tongue education, English is often chosen as language of learning and teaching at the cost of the African official languages. This study proposes the accommodation and promotion of multilingualism through blended learning. Blended learning refers to the blending of traditional instruction methods, such as face-to-face instruction, with other forms of instruction such as online learning and teaching. Through a discussion of asynchronous and synchronous learning tools it was established that wikis would be used for this study. In terms of blended learning and learning theories the main emphasis in this study is on socio-constructivism as well as communal constructivism. The empirical research in this study focused on the establishment and testing of a conceptual model for the accommodation and promotion of multilingualism through blended learning in the subject IT. The research took the form of a sequential embedded mixed methods design. Both quantitative and qualitative approaches were used. A questionnaire was used with IT teachers to investigate the language and blended learning context. This was followed up with qualitative research in the form of interviews aimed at provincial and national experts in terms of the subject IT and e-learning. Based on the literature and these two investigations, a conceptual model was developed. The conceptual model’s effectiveness was tested through a quasi-experimental study. A questionnaire was also completed by the respondents at the schools after the completion of the study. Through the testing of the effectiveness of the conceptual model it was found that multilingualism could successfully be accommodated and promoted through this conceptual model. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Education))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2011

Multilingualism is a reality in South African classrooms. The Constitution of South Africa (Act 108 of 1996) and the national language policy recognize language rights and aims at supporting, promoting and developing the official languages. However, despite the advantages of mother tongue education, English is often chosen as language of learning and teaching at the cost of the African official languages. This study proposes the accommodation and promotion of multilingualism through blended learning. Blended learning refers to the blending of traditional instruction methods, such as face-to-face instruction, with other forms of instruction such as online learning and teaching. Through a discussion of asynchronous and synchronous learning tools it was established that wikis would be used for this study. In terms of blended learning and learning theories the main emphasis in this study is on socio-constructivism as well as communal constructivism. The empirical research in this study focused on the establishment and testing of a conceptual model for the accommodation and promotion of multilingualism through blended learning in the subject IT. The research took the form of a sequential embedded mixed methods design. Both quantitative and qualitative approaches were used. A questionnaire was used with IT teachers to investigate the language and blended learning context. This was followed up with qualitative research in the form of interviews aimed at provincial and national experts in terms of the subject IT and e-learning. Based on the literature and these two investigations, a conceptual model was developed. The conceptual model’s effectiveness was tested through a quasi-experimental study. A questionnaire was also completed by the respondents at the schools after the completion of the study. Through the testing of the effectiveness of the conceptual model it was found that multilingualism could successfully be accommodated and promoted through this conceptual model. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Education))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2011

This thesis investigates how users contribute to wiki environments implemented in higher education settings. The type, extent and quality of users' edits is assessed by analyzing a student-generated wiki through a manual analysis carried by three raters. This project aims to present the relative contribution of wiki users as a way to motivate them to collaborate in a wiki-based group project. Manual as well as automatic programs are used to analyze the same set of wiki articles. Automatic algorithms are proposed to estimate users' relative contribution and ownership to the article. Suggested is the implementation of a visual representation known as a glyph (working as an add-on to the wiki) that shows statistics on participants contributions. Several glyph designs were tested by participants through interviews. These interviews showed that participants identified the visualization as a motivation enhancer to contribute to wikis.