Sun Wikis Success Stories
There was a really cool success story about Sun Wikis published on our intranet that is totally worth sharing here. The following isn't the complete story, but does include the keypoints.
Kudos to the Sun Java Communications Suite team for a fantastic use of Sun Wikis!
"July 22, 2008 - Last fall, when faced with the problem of how to increase collaboration with its customers, the Sun Java Communications Suite team responded by going "all out" with its product documentation on wikis.sun.com. Communications Suite (Comms Suite) provides the email, calendar, and instant messaging services used by employees as well as hundreds of millions of people worldwide.
The Comms Suite Documentation Wiki went live in January of this year, just in time for the Comms Suite 6 Beta Program. Already, in just a few short months, the wiki has been embraced by the Comms Suite community.
"Using wikis.sun.com as the platform for the Comms Suite documentation has been nothing short of a revolution for us," said Jim Parkinson, VP, Tools and Services. "We are getting real-time feedback from customers in the form of wiki comments and direct contributions which have an immediate impact on the shape, direction and content of the documentation. Customers are a part of the ecosystem and are actively engaging with Sun employees and each other. We believe this effects a higher level of customer engagement and satisfaction.""
Kudos to the Sun Java Communications Suite team for a fantastic use of Sun Wikis!
This is not a success story...
The Comms documentation was much more usable on docs.sun.com. The wiki content is difficult to use and the PDF output is terrible.
I hope Sun comes to its senses and starts putting docs back on docs.sun.com where they belong.
Posted by Sun Customer on July 30, 2008 at 06:02 PM MDT #
Sun Customer, being a first hand user of documentation, your perspective is far more useful than mine (as the wikis.sun.com program manager). I'd love to talk with you about your ideas on how we can tweak Sun Wikis to better meet your need and/or put you directly in touch with the Java Communications Suite folks to discuss your concerns/ideas. Please ping me at linda[dot]skrocki[at]sun.com.
Posted by Skrocki on July 30, 2008 at 06:16 PM MDT #
Sun Customer:
Along with contacting Linda, feel free to contact me: joseph.sciallo@sun.com. As one of the writers on the Comms Wiki, I'd like to hear from you to see how we can improve what we are doing. Changing from DSC to WSC for our product docs represents an opportunity for more customer communication and collaboration, which DSC didn't really provide. However, I agree that the WSC platform, in its current incarnation, has some issues. For example, you are right, PDF output from WSC is not on par with what we used to provide on DSC.
As a workaround, just this week, I've tried to make more "printable" docs at the following URL:
http://wikis.sun.com/display/CommSuite/Printable+Communications+Suite+6+Documentation
From what I can tell, WSC is doing a great job bringing in new functionality and features, so over time, I'm looking forward to a better PDF solution.
I encourage you to feel free to contact Linda and myself to share your ideas on how we can improve the WSC experience.
Thanks,
Joe
Posted by Joe Sciallo on July 31, 2008 at 08:31 AM MDT #
Hey Linda,
You are (more) famous now...
http://www.thestandard.com/news/2008/07/30/corporate-blogs-bring-culture-transparency
Congratulations!!! :-)
Posted by Chhandomay on July 31, 2008 at 08:53 AM MDT #
Joe, thank you for stepping in. I'll let you know if I hear back from the customer.
Chhandomay, thanks for the pointer.
Posted by Skrocki on July 31, 2008 at 11:25 AM MDT #
Great post! My friend runs a small business we do internet marketing for companies and so a lot of our e-newsletter, blog and seminar content revolve around for promotion. Thanks!!!
Posted by Jeff Paul success stories on June 26, 2009 at 10:15 AM MDT #