Wikipatterns

Chapter 2a. Case Study: Johns Hopkins University

Note

Johns Hopkins University

Baltimore, Maryland, USA

www.jhu.edu

A Conversation with Geoffrey Corb, IT Director, Student Information Systems Type of organization: University

Number of wiki users: about 500

Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins University became the first research university in the United States. Its aim was two-fold – to advance students' knowledge and to advance the general human knowledge through discovery and scholarship. Today, more than a century later, the University spans across nine academic and research divisions, each of which is grouped among the finest schools of the country. With its emphasis on learning and research, Johns Hopkins University has revolutionized higher education within the United States.

1. Why did you choose a wiki?

In the midst of implementing a sophisticated new student information system for the university, we found ourselves plagued with a number of problems not all that uncommon to large system implementation projects. First and foremost, we had and were continuing to develop significant knowledge about the product and system that we were implementing and needed someplace to store and organize it. In addition, document management was a challenge, with documents being stored in a number of places on the network and being constantly circulated via email. Finally, with constant activity on a project of this nature, project participants were becoming numb to the volume of emails being distributed ...