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For Technical Documentation Teams & Knowledge Base Administrators
How to Crowdsource Your Content andTechnical Documentation
by Mark FidelmanMindTouch, Inc.
Collaborative Knowledge base
Success today is not about amassing knowledge or information; instead itsabout absorbing and processing new information and using the knowledgegained to innovate? The Web 1.0 concept of a corporate knowledge base valuedaccumulated information. Terabytes of data were gathered, categorized, andsecured for future generations, like the reference section in a library. Oftenimpressive in scale it is was hardly the incubator of corporate innovation.Ideas are rarely found in the details of existing knowledge. Rather, innovationis born from new knowledge or perspectives applied to existing ideas. Thecorporate knowledge base should foster innovation by attracting new knowledgeand enabling perspectives. Archived information is only one component of thesolution; as it is the knowledge baseline from which innovation evolves.A visionary can single-handedly ideate the next big thing, but two headsare better than one. And a hundred heads would be even better? Web 2.0technologies have proven the value of “crowdsourcing” – appealing to all usersacross the Internet for information, expertise, and ideas to help solve a problemor accomplish an objective – yet, most companies are unwilling to submit criticalproprietary information to the whims of anonymous Internet denizens. To create a corporate knowledge base that leverages the power of crowdsourcing,companies must first attract and engage their “in” crowd of people, includingemployees, customers, business partners, and industry experts, who have a vested interest in the new information and ideas that will be generated by thecrowd. By implementing a MindTouch Collaborative Knowledge Base (CKB),companies can cater to their in-crowd to develop a powerful source of new information and ideas that foster innovation.
Cost Justified
Admit it – you’re tired of hearing experts tell you how to become moreinnovative. Different vendors offer a wide range of solutions that cost money 
table of Contents
Collaborative Knowledge Base...1
Cost Justifed
..............................1The In-Crowd is Fickle................3
 
© 2009, MindTouch, Inc.October 28, 2009
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How to Crowdsource Your Content and Technical Documentation
For Technical Documentation Teams & Knowledge Base Administrators
and promise speculative ROI. Innovation is necessary, but the cost of innovation does not necessarily have to be expensive.A MindTouch CKB, deployed on our highly regarded collaborationplatform, can be ramped from ground zero at minimal cost and scaled toenterprise level as a company’s in-crowd, and ROI, grows. A more aggressiveimplementation can deliver quantifiable ROI within weeks with expediteduser adoption because a CKB delivers hard-dollar savings. Consider acompany is already paying to try to collect the information that will beprovided for free by the in-crowd. Feedback from customers, productsuggestions, potential partner initiatives, and industry trends have historically been gathered, developed, or investigated – sometimes accurately – by company staff at a significant cost. An engaged in-crowd can provide thatinput, and more, on an ongoing basis with greater clarity. An enterprise CKBhas the real potential of replacing the work product of multiple staff members, while contributing ideas and perspectives from hundreds of connected andinformed people.
Figure 1. MindTouch Collaborative Knowledge Base homepage
C Jy C Kb (CKb)
• The corporate knowledge base
should incubate, not archive,ideas to foster innovation
• Crowdsource a CKB by cultivating your “in” crowd tomake positive contributions• Build stronger connections
between team members, partners, and customers
• Using MindTouch’s open
source CKB ensures
immediate ROI by producing 
hard dollar savings and high-value information
 
© 2009, MindTouch, Inc.October 28, 2009
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How to Crowdsource Your Content and Technical Documentation
For Technical Documentation Teams & Knowledge Base Administrators
 The benefits of collaboration as enabled by the CKB are also welldocumented. From connecting globally dispersed supply chains to capturingcustomer motivations to shortening project time-to-completion by eliminatingiterative processes, collaboration has been deemed strategically important tothe future of their businesses by more than 50% of CEOs recently surveyed.Clients that have implemented a MindTouch CKB also report unexpectedbenefits from collaboration – stronger relationships across the in-crowd.Employees have greater visibility into each team member’s contribution.Customers feel connected, and that the company values their input. Businesspartnerships become transparent, so that morale builds as team members cantrack execution of common goals through each company’s organization. Web 2.0 is rapidly creating an expectation by customers and partners thatcompanies interact at a personal level. Engaging the in-crowd through aMindTouch CKB can meet those expectations.
the in-Crowd is fiCKle
 While people will go to any length to complain or criticize, the in-crowdmust be properly motivated to contribute meaningful insight and thoughtful
Figure 2. Safe crowdsourcing thorugh content moderation
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