International TechNet Wiki Summit2015

Sandro Pereira

From Forums to Wiki: Templates

Senior Software Developer at DevScope and Microsoft Integration MVP since 2011

Member and co-founder of BizTalkCrew – BizTalk Innovation Day Events

Writer of numerous articles for Portuguese eMagazine “Programar”

Member of “BizTalkAdminsblogging.com” and “BizTalk Brasil” community Member NetPonto community, MSDN BizTalk Forums Moderator TechNet Wiki author (Wiki Ninja) TechNet Gallery, Code Gallery and CodePlex contributor Author book: BizTalk Mapping Patterns and Best Practices Public speaker and Technical Reviewer of some books

Sandro Pereira (Blog, twitter, website)

About

2 Sandro Pereira: Senior Software Developer at DevScope; Microsoft Integration MVP

Agenda

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• Why should we migrate content from forums?• Forums + TechNet Wiki = Better together • Best Practices for Converting a Forum Thread into a New Wiki Article• Defining a common structure: Templates

• How can Templates can help you• Wiki: Troubleshooting Template Format• Wiki: Questions and Solutions Template Format

• Resource and more information• Key Takeaways• Q&A

Sandro Pereira: Senior Software Developer at DevScope; Microsoft Integration MVP

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Why should we migrate content from forums?A good forum thread is one where the questioner gets a helpful response or answer… but sometimes:

• Forum thread can take different directions• Some of them can have multiple problems and solutions • Some of them can became very extensive• There are a lot of similar forum threads

They have a different audience

Sandro Pereira: Senior Software Developer at DevScope; Microsoft Integration MVP

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Why should we migrate content from forums?One of the key point to migrate content from forums is:• Community Synergy across TechNet Forums and TechNet Wiki

• Forums + TechNet Wiki = Better together• Cross-links improving both contents

TechNet Wiki have a new and different audience and in addition:• Collaboration• Maintenance

Sandro Pereira: Senior Software Developer at DevScope; Microsoft Integration MVP

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Forums + TechNet Wiki = Better together Ed Price wrote a blog:• Why create a TechNet Wiki article when you can just link to a forum thread?

.

Sandro Pereira: Senior Software Developer at DevScope; Microsoft Integration MVP

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Forums + TechNet Wiki = Better together Now here is what you'd do to create a Wiki article:• You write up a fantastic solution in the forums.• You copy and paste the problem statement into a new Wiki article; you

tweak it.• Then you copy and paste your solutions. You add a little more explanations.• You make the title awesome so that it gets great SEO.• Then you publish it and let the community help you keep it up to date (and

maybe help fix any of your typos).

Sandro Pereira: Senior Software Developer at DevScope; Microsoft Integration MVP

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Best Practices for Converting a Forum Thread into a New Wiki Article• Explain the problem.• Take your time to find the right solution, possible solutions, or/and related

problems.• Accuracy.• Give Credits.

• Best Practices for Giving Credit in the TechNet Wiki • Be careful copying content from external source• Defining a common structure.

Sandro Pereira: Senior Software Developer at DevScope; Microsoft Integration MVP

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/20975.wiki-best-practices-for-converting-a-forum-thread-into-a-new-wiki-article.aspx

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Defining a common structure: Templates

Have you seen a book with different layouts and different structures between different chapters?

For me it is always a best practice to apply the same concepts in the TechNet Wiki.

If we follow similar article structure, I believe the TechNet Wiki will be more consistent and the articles will be more easy to read/understand.

For helping you accomplish that, you can apply one of the following templates:• Troubleshooting template • Questions template

Sandro Pereira: Senior Software Developer at DevScope; Microsoft Integration MVP

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Wiki: Troubleshooting Template Format

Sandro Pereira: Senior Software Developer at DevScope; Microsoft Integration MVP

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Wiki: Questions and Solutions Template Format

Sandro Pereira: Senior Software Developer at DevScope; Microsoft Integration MVP

Resource and more information

Best Practices for Converting a Forum Thread into a New Wiki Articlehttp://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/20975.wiki-best-practices-for-converting-a-forum-thread-into-a-new-wiki-article.aspx

Wiki: Troubleshooting Template Formathttp://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/21546.wiki-troubleshooting-template-format.aspx

Wiki: Questions and Solutions Template Formathttp://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/21547.wiki-questions-and-solutions-template-format.aspx

Top Five reasons to use MSDN/TechNet Forums & TechNet Wiki togetherhttp://blogs.technet.com/b/wikininjas/archive/2012/01/11/social-synergy-3-five-reasons-to-use-technet-forums-amp-technet-wiki-together.aspx

12 Sandro Pereira: Senior Software Developer at DevScope; Microsoft Integration MVP

Resource and more information

Synergy in Social Computinghttp://blogs.technet.com/b/wikininjas/archive/2012/05/22/synergy-in-social-computing.aspx

Wiki Life: Why create a TechNet Wiki article when you can just link to a forum thread?http://blogs.technet.com/b/wikininjas/archive/2013/08/21/wiki-life-why-create-a-technet-wiki-article-when-you-can-just-link-to-a-forum-thread.aspx

TNWIKI - Wiki Life - How to Create Content for the Technet Wikihttp://blogs.technet.com/b/wikininjas/archive/2014/05/21/tnwiki-wiki-life-how-to-create-content-for-the-technet-wiki.aspx

13 Sandro Pereira: Senior Software Developer at DevScope; Microsoft Integration MVP

Key Takeaways

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Templates helps you to define and follow a common structure• They will provide the structure base from your article• You can easily copy the structure to your new article

• Time saver: be focus in the content and not in the structure

You can add new templates for all different topics

Don't forget to give Credits and add cross-link between articles and forums threads.

Sandro Pereira: Senior Software Developer at DevScope; Microsoft Integration MVP

Key Takeaways

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Don’t rush… Take your time to find the right solution, possible solutions, or/and related problems

And help us to grow the TechNet wiki in terms of both content and quality by adding new articles based on Forums

Sandro Pereira: Senior Software Developer at DevScope; Microsoft Integration MVP

Questions?

16 Sandro Pereira: Senior Software Developer at DevScope; Microsoft Integration MVP

sandro.pereira@devscope.netlinkedin.com/in/sandropereira@sandro_asp sandroaspbiztalkblog.wordpress.com

Questions?

www.devscope.net

17 Sandro Pereira: Senior Software Developer at DevScope; Microsoft Integration MVP

Thanks