Wiki Patterns

MySpace is a pattern in which people are encouraged to post personal profile pages, MySpace-style. It's a good way for people to get started contributing to the wiki by posting contact information, a picture, a short biography, website URL, etc.

Create a template (see the Scaffold pattern) so that profile pages have a standard general organization and set of content. Then encourage current members of your group, employees, etc. to create profile pages, and make it standard practice for any new employee to create a profile, preferably during their first few days at work.

Consider including in the profile template placeholders, e.g.:

• Contact information: email, phone, IM - AIM, Yahoo, Google Talk, Skype, Twitter, etc.
• Blog and personal website URL
• Biography
• Encourage blogging on profile pages - can be a good way for people to get to know more about each other and build community in teams, as well as a good place to update progress on projects, get informal feedback via comments, and float ideas.
• Macro {incoming-links} could easily list all pages the user contributed to: e.g. all pages signed StewardMader

Stewart Mader Wiki Evangelist, Atlassian Software Systems

Stewart Mader is Wiki Evangelist for Atlassian Software Systems, and a noted wiki/social software researcher, author, blogger and speaker. Before joining Atlassian, he worked with several universities and a number of other organizations to introduce wikis and grow wiki collaboration across departments, teams, and projects.

In 2007 he launched Wikipatterns.com , which is his personal perspective on the uses and benefits of wiki collaboration.

In 2006, he published Using Wiki in Education , a book containing 10 wide-ranging case studies from teachers using the wiki to transform teaching and engage today's students. This is the first book to focus specifically on the wiki in education and be developed and published using a wiki, so it actively demonstrates the tool in action.

• Invitation - an invitation to use the wiki is a great precursor to the MySpace pattern, because it formally offers people the opportunity to learn to to use the wiki and start participating.
• Poker - the Poker pattern is a good next step after MySpace. Once individual content is posted, putting social content like the weekly poker schedule gets people regularly looking at the wiki.
• Scaffold - the scaffold pattern is especially useful for creating a standard general organization and set of content on profile pages.
• Magnet - since profile pages contain crucial information like employee contact details, pictures, and biographies, this contributes to the wiki becoming a magnet for an organization.

• PeopleWiki with the concept of Wiki Member Page (WMP)
• Wikipedia User Page Design Center
• MeatballWiki : FrontLawn