Overview of Wiki

Policy development is an intensive process of "research, analysis, consultation and synthesis of information to produce recommendations" for direction or specific action on an issue (MB Office of Auditor General 2003). It can take months and even years to develop policy. Bringing the right people into the process often means bringing in people with already stretched time resources, which can limit the timeliness of policy development. Are there ways to speed up the process and be more accommodating to the heavy workloads of individuals?

		» Click to visit the KIS Policy Wiki

KIS has experimented with wiki technology to collaboratively develop a policy backgrounder. Unfamiliar with what a wiki even is? A popular wiki is Wikipedia, which allows for collaborative development of a virtual encyclopedia. The KIS Policy Wiki used the same platform as Wikipedia to bring together knowledgeable parties to collaboratively develop a backgrounder to inform agriculture policy.

The policy wiki ran from June 6 to 30, 2008. Invited individuals were asked to develop policy alternatives and background information on the issue of carbon credit policy for agriculture. KIS sees value in this tool and is pleased to see other organizations using similar approaches to do collaborative policy work using online tools (see The Globe and Mail policy wiki).