c.Figallo

Posts Tagged ‘content management’

The answer should not be, “It can’t get much dumber.” What I’m getting at is more focused on the social media angle. Can wikis and blogs (for example) be implemented within government in such a way that they will help make our public servants work smarter and more productively – that we’ll get more of our money’s worth?

One reason I ask is that this product review on the GCN (Government Computer News) site begs the question. Check it out and see how you feel about the recommendations for implementing the $15,000 (for small groups) Team Page 4.0 application. I’ve got no argument with the review’s recommendations of Team Page as a content publishing tool, including its ability to assign many levels of read/write permissions and staging content for selective previewing. But when applied with social interfaces like wikis and blogs, it seems likely to wash the “social” right out of the application.

Here are some lines from the review that had me scratching my head wondering why you’d bring wikis and blogs into your government workplace only to lock them down with good old “Team” Page. OK, I know…State Secrets, National Security, etc. But, still, we’re beginnig with relatively inexpensive enterprise level apps and then adding a relatively expensive enterprise application to neutralize their effectiveness.

A poorly deployed blog or wiki can do your organization a lot more harm than good. Even at open federal agencies, releasing information willy-nilly is a recipe for disaster. But with careful planning and deployment, even the most secretive agencies can benefit from this relatively new technology.

* * *

If you think about how wikis and blogs work, they are essentially the same thing, though with different permission levels. That is how TeamPage can become all things to all people, even a content management tool used as Web server.

Beyond the important matter of permissions, TeamPage’s ability to handle data is impressive. If more wikis were designed this way, they probably would be more widely used in government, either as internal tools or for public comment.

* * *

Pricing for TeamPage varies. On the low end, with only a few users, you can get the program for $15,000 with annual updates of $7,500. This is a little expensive if you have only 25 users. There are less efficient but far cheaper ways to manage your wikis and blogs — even some freeware programs.

However, having a large number of users involved in wikis and blogs increases the complexity and the potential for disaster — both technically and by giving out the wrong information to the wrong people. If you have more than 200 users, you can purchase the unlimited license for $60,000 with annual updates of $30,000. This is isn’t cheap, but there is no better way to manage wikis and blogs supporting multiple projects from one program.