If You Build It, Will They Come? A Collaborative Framework to Share IT Knowledge

IT support providers and end users both want similar things: fast and easy access to up-to-date IT information and solutions. Why not contribute to and share the same IT knowledge resource? At MIT, we did just that. In 2008 a project was launched to broaden an existing help desk internal knowledge base to an institute-wide IT help system, integrating contributions from IT support organizations around MIT and providing role-based access control. A year into the new shared environment, we have success stories, lessons learned, and excitement about making this valuable resource even better to share.