Here are the slides and some references for my closing talk at Swiss Intranet Summit in Zürich.

Each and every of my endeavors starts with an index page. A title, a logo, some ideas, related info, more stuff added over time, a log, and sooner than later the thing becomes a substantial project. This approach worked out fine for me for almost 1 1/2 decades now. First in the GoLive team in the late 1990s, where we developed a WYSIWYG web editor. Then the intranet for StarOffice' user experience team. And today I am still using GoLive to create and write on web pages for my projects.

All this is along the lines of the original vision of Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau to create a read/write web. Some time has passed, and their vision never came true. At least not in a way that could be called elegant or straight forward. Instead we see a cyber-landscape of wikis, blogs, microblogs and other social software that empower "users" to "generate content." Wrong perspective _BTW.

For the VDI project I've changed my habits a little. I set up a blog internal to Sun and start with a blog entry, a tag, some ideas, related info, more stuff added over time, and sooner than later the thing becomes a substantial project. The advantages are the same as in the early web zero-dot-nine days. I do not have to spend extra effort in communication, while colleagues can see what is happening and can provide feedback.

Here is a screenshot of my internal blog at Sun:

Tags are assigned to all entries, and the resulting tag cloud provides quick navigation for the blog. Concept diagrams, design sketches, and even photos from whiteboard scribblings are stored and shared on the blog. Other content like wiki pages are linked, as well as classical intranet pages for stuff that does not easily fit here.

I am not blogging. I say it again, I am not blogging. I just use the internal blog as a low key content management system; and that approach has proven to be useful for me and the team I work with.

>> VDI UX Story: Part 1: Concept Workshops | Part 2: User Research || To be continued...

Sun's wiki space for Desktop Virtualization has been relaunched. New pages, and lots of feeds from Sun bloggers. Check it out at_  http://wikis.sun.com/display/DesktopVirtualization/

I spent some time exploring and experimenting with wikis.sun.com. First of all, it is a wiki that is open to people inside Sun as well as outside. Second, it is divided into spaces on various topics. Each space is created by a Sun employee, has its own set of permissions that control the access level for the users. Everything is possible -- from anybody can do everything, down to just the space owner can see and edit the pages of her wiki space.

The notation guide reveals some nice features. It is definitely worth to take a look. My personal highlight is the capability to include some external content to wiki pages. For example, the wiki page for the Sun Ray Conenctor for VMware View Manger lists all of Sun's blog postings that are tagged with 'srvc'. The wiki macro that does the trick is:

{rss:url=http://blogs.sun.com/main/feed/entries/atom?tags=srvc}

The other feature I like to discuss in brief is the page layout and a navbar with macros. Therefore, all my wiki pages are based on the same skeleton:

{section}
{column:width=70%}

main content goes here

{column}

{column:width=5%}
{column}

{column:width=25%}
{include:navbar}
{column}
{section}

This divides the page into 3 columns: 70% width for the main content, 5% white space, 25% for the navigation bar on the right. The latter contains the same elements for all pages by including another wiki page 'navbar'. Here is my navbar:

{panel:bgColor=#eef|borderColor=#ccc}
h6. Pages
[A Social Software Pattern Language]
{pagetree:startDepth=2}
\\
{pagetreesearch}
\\
{recently-updated-dashboard:showProfilePic=true} 
\\
{panel}

A light blue box with a tree view of all pages in the wiki space, a search element, and a log of recent changes in the wiki space to stimulate participation. '\\' is a forced empty line. Here is an example: A Social Software Pattern Language

BTW_ I strongly recommend to put such recurring elements to the right, in order not to break the visual connection between the page heading and the content.

enjoy,
mmprove

Marc wrote on June-17:

Our team had a discussion yesterday on introducing a team wiki, followed by a traditional website vs wiki discussion. 

During the brainstorming one team member commented that when we communicate with our internal audience, when that audience is coming to our information source (wiki or website), the way that the information is presented (look and feel, lay-out, ...) is very important. [...]

Hi Marc,
sure layout matters. But group communication methods matter as well. And -- even if I don't like it -- wikis are far easier to edit than web sites. The lower the barrier the more likely it is that your team contributes to the common information pool. And this is what should count for more than 50%.
But you should also take care for visitors, people who want to find out e.g. what your team is working on. Wikis have a simple navigation, i.e. all pages are equal. I would hardly refer to this as a proper information architecture. You need more structure, global layout, landmarks, home pages, site maps, concept images than wikis provide out of the box. (Well, I should mention mediawiki.org, that allows to assign categories and has hierarchical pages and templates, at least.) Because of the lack of these general layout properties, people are far more easily lost in wiki space than they are already in web space. You cannot assume that they are familiar with your wiki system, and that they are willing to spend much time to find the answers they are looking for.
To sum it up -- use the wiki as a communication medium for your team but do not expect that this is sufficient to communicate with the world. Use a website, blogs, e-mails that provide the context and  link to the wiki for the latest information on the subject.
-Matthias

Neither Rome, nor Wikipedia were built in a single day. Hence my first draft of a glossary of terms in the area of virtualization is far from perfect. But it provides an overview on the acronyms I've learned so far.