I like the idea of a wiki or forum, possibly SharePoint now that it’s matured dramatically.  Essentially the creation of a central knowledgebase for all of the MSU IT staff to contribute to and enhance as issues arise.  Yes, I come from a corporate background, but a good KB can be an invaluable tool.  Anything that allows the exchange of questions/answers, code, tools, etc. to allow for better management of resources just makes sense for a enterprise this large and spread out.

 

 

At the meeting on Friday the question was brought up as to what type of tools would be the most effective for communication with other MSU IT staff in sharing ideas, solutions, and finding individuals with specialized skills or experience in a certain area.  Some of the tools suggested were blogs, wiki, SharePoint, forums and a central list of individuals and their expertise.

To me I like the idea of a MSU IT forum the best, although other tools could be used in conjunction.  The list of different topics that was shown to us during the IT Exchange could easily be broken down into sub-forum areas for specific topics.  Just as a rough example:

Systems
 -Windows
 |-Vista
 -Linux
 -Mac
Programming
 - Languages
 |-C++
 |-C#
 - Scripts
 |-Perl

For me, it would be most useful is each of these "areas" could provide an RSS feed, so I could subscribe to the "Perl" one, for example, and see all of the posts come through my RSS reader.  With questions and responses all in one place it would serve as a fantastic knowledge base for searching for solutions to problems that have already been solved by someone else but are new to me.  If there was some type of "point" system for when a correct answer is given by someone they are awarded a point.  This would allow us to see, in a certain area, who might be the best persons to ask.

What tools do you think would be good and why?

--
Troy Murray
Informatics Specialist
Michigan State University
Biomedical Research & Informatics Center (BRIC)
100 Conrad Hall
East Lansing, MI 48824
Phone: 517-432-4248
Fax: 517-353-9420
E-mail: [log in to unmask]