On 08/19/2013 03:42 AM, Yury Katkov wrote:

Hi guys!

I think that besides advertising your own company's service to increase revenue we have to promote MediaWiki, wikis, and wiki way in general to attract more potential clients. Because of that I decided to do some journalism from time to time and highlight successfull use cases that have been implemented with the help MediaWiki and Semantic MediaWiki.

But who are those people that can be interested in using MediaWiki in their enterprises? Technical documentation specialists, knowledge managers, enterprise architechture folks? And where do they communicate?

Let's brainstorm a little bit.

Cheers,

Yury Katkov, WikiVote

This is a good question to ask and an example of good marketing thinking, in my opinion. Caution: lots of writing ahead! If you just want my direct answer, skip down to "But back to discovery."

When we think through the workflow of how an organization decides to use a new process or tool, I think there are a few approaches. Here are three I've seen:

The "consultants in a helicopter" pattern: 1. A company has a nagging sense that Something Is Wrong, and hires short-term consultants to diagnose and fix the problem. 2. The consultants swoop down (in the metaphorical helicopter), read a lot, interview people, remember what they have used before or heard about via colleagues and conferences, write up some suggestions, implement some new tools and processes, and then fly away. 3. Sometimes the people who do the work learn to use the new thing and change their workflows to incorporate it. Sometimes, though, the culture's immune system rejects it, and it goes unused.

The "internal zealot" pattern: 1. Someone at a company hears about a new idea from a friend, a magazine, a blog, or a conference, and gets really excited about a new tool/process. 2. That person persuades or overcomes opposition and launches the new way to do things. 3. See "Sometimes...." same as step 3 above.

The "compliance and lawyers" pattern: 1. A new requirement, usually one with an alien-sounding abbreviation (e.g. "PCI," "SarbOx," "FERPA," "HIPAA"), comes down from a regulatory body. 2. The company's lawyers write a memo to the head of tech giving a deadline for compliance. 3. The tech head searches around the web, checks with his/her professional network, and perhaps brings in a consultant to help choose a tool. 4. Tech implements the tool, and Human Resources sends out manuals and leads training sessions to show people how to use it.

I've seen all three of these at various places I've worked.

So when we're helping people choose MediaWiki *and stick with it*, we need to address:

a. Discovery -- how do we help consultants, life hackers, and chief technology officers learn that MediaWiki is an option? b. Persuasion -- how do we help those internal champions get their superiors and colleagues to agree to try it out? c. Retention -- how do we help organizations adjust their ways of working, use the wiki effectively, and customize it to their needs?

In my opinion we need to work on all three of these. Regarding persuasion and retention, Atul Gawande has recently written a piece you might like to read: "Slow Ideas: Some innovations spread fast. How do you speed the ones that don’t?" http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/07/29/130729fa_fact_gawande?currentP...

But back to discovery. Some ways that technologists, executives, consultants, and lifehackers hear about tools to adopt: TV, blogs, Twitter, salespeople, conferences, magazines (including in-flight magazines).

But to get a clearer picture, and some steps to act on, I'd recommend that you find five people who would be good customers, but who don't use MediaWiki yet, and ask them where they get their news/information about new tech tools.