Wiki Patterns
grow your wiki
EditRecords Manager
What is it?
A Records Manager quakes when faced with unstructured data that can be modified at whim by users however literate.
Usage
Questions are being asked that may sound critical, such as
- Where does the use of a corporate Wiki cross the bounds between records management and communication?
- Is only some corporate data ready to be Wikified?
Example
A Records Manager might feel right to point out:
- Wiki entries may not be acceptable in a tax audit because the records can be doctored.
- Policies and procedures stored in a wiki have no authorization status.
- The documentation and records management system may not pass a management system audit (e.g by a major customer or for ISO 9001).
A wiki champion may respond by:
- Explaining the wiki's soft security features (all changes logged) and inviting the tax auditor to verify this to his own satisfaction.
- Defining a way to clearly distinguish an authorized "release" from a "draft".
- Do both of the above.
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I think most members of an organisation struggle with the structure of formal "Records" and would choose to be informal. However from an organisational position you don't want too many repositories of data particularly unstructured data. From a tech viewpoint its just another store to be managed with the same care as the ECM system, but possibly withoutthe same toolset.
I have to admit to wrestling with the question of wikis versus more formal document management systems for a client I'm currently working with.
It's the old "everyone in the company has stuff on their hard drive that they send back and forth" problem, and I don't really have a sense for when one chooses a more traditional document management system over a wiki beyond vague references to more structured processes and static documents. Even that took digging.