User:Torley Linden/RKI
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Rapid Knowledge Iteration
In-progress... always.
Purpose
Time-effective, Resident-guided, incremental updating of Second Life help based on what Residents can practically and really use, as opposed to what hypothetically might be important. Quick adjustments are done to swiftly evolve an article into a much higher state so the answers are available JIT. Philosophically, we be rockin kaizen!
(This is also how the wiki general model works, as opposed to old-skool "Release a new set of encyclopedias every year".)
Process
- Scan Second Life Answers and related resources daily.
- Observe patterns (like that show Fringe) and clusters around a focused topic. Corroborate with analytical data so anecdotes are grounded.
- Are there hot threads where answers aren't or are partially in the Knowledge Base? For example, a Resi has a great tip we didn't include. There's a lot of gold waiting to be refined in thar hills.
- What about other opportunities to "connect the dots" and expose existing resources? Fix broken links, retitle pages.
- In the case of a FAQ, from your firsthand experiences with the product, what's most important? What would you (in the Residents' shoes) want to Q&A? Take 15 min. to indulge your childlike wonder, then write those down ASAP so not only your ideas captured, you're in a better position to teach them.
- Focus on disproportionately important topics, which there'll always be. In other words, where could you spend 15 minutes and end up saving hours of cumulative time for others, Lindens and Residents alike?
- Prepare to edit/add appropriate KB article.
- Take notes, fact-check.
- Giving a day or so for the subject matter to gel is fine. Inspiration strikes at odd times.
- Update the KB article.
- In some cases, additional pictures and/or videos "fill the gap".
- Don't bloat articles. Content should be fulfilling yet lean, with off-page links to edge cases and trivia which might be distracting. From experience, use your best case-by-case judgment.
- Post in the thread and contact awesome helpful volunteers & Linden SMEs (Subject Matter Experts) to let them know.
- "The next time this question comes up, our KB article will be better!"
- Encourage volunteers to QUOTE article snippets and LINK TO sources — and emphasize that "If this helped you, share it with a friend!" to get the word out.
- Remember, this wiki is Resident-editable, they're empowered to enhance it themselves without waiting around for one of us.
- Promotion! Blog post? Video tutorial?
- Lather, rinse, repeat to continually improve article.
Examples
Articles where this worked awesomely (see page histories for evolution):
... and many others highlighted on http://secondlife.com/tnt