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MozaicTWiki Knowledgebase Project

Rationale

Mozaic Upliftment Trust (Mozaic) is a small organization comprised of a team of expatriate volunteers, host-country nationals, a director, and a board of trustees in South Africa. Volunteers contribute to pilot projects in food security, health, and evangelism with community partners. Volunteers work semi-independently from the director and from one another, with brief coordinating meetings held biweekly.

Mozaic’s structure encourages creativity and autonomy among team members but presents challenges in coordination and knowledge retention. In December of 2007, the Mozaic team selected the development of a knowledgebase as a priority project for 2008. The MozaicTWiki is the result of this initiative.

Objectives

1. Provide an environment for collaboration on project planning, monitoring, and evaluation
2. Capture, organize, and make accessible knowledge gained from Mozaic projects
3. Serve as a digital document management system (DMS)

MozaicTWiki Design

Software and Hardware. The MozaicTWiki knowledgebase runs on the TWiki platform, an open-source structured wiki. The TWiki software is installed on an office server running the Windows XP Professional operating system and the WAMP web server package. Mozaic team members access the knowledgebase via the wireless local area network.

The open-source TWiki platform was selected as a collaborative knowledgebase tool for its usability, expansive documentation, and ease of modification.

Structure. The MozaicTWiki is divided into “webs” of information. The Main, TWiki, and Sandbox webs are part of the standard TWiki setup and provide for user management, server management, and testing, respectively. The Projects and Knowledge webs contain collaboratively produced documents on project development and knowledge capture, respectively.

Projects Web	Administrative Tools Minutes of team meetings Document management system for administrative documents
	Core project documents for active Mozaic projects Project outlines Logical framework matrices Activity plans
	Monitoring and reporting tools Field note filing system Reporting system for research and field work Ideas collection and development system
Knowledge Web	Agriculture knowledge Plant information Best practices for agricultural production
	Capacity building knowledge Tools for capacity building in community partners
	Contact management Persons Organizations

Content Tools. In addition to the collaborative editing features offered by the TWiki platform, the “WikiLink” and dynamic search features create a knowledgebase with rich linking between knowledgebase entries. Project documents, for example, are replete with references to pertinent contacts, tools, and reports.

Implementation

• Phase 0
  • Set up TWiki software package on MozaicServer
    • Lay out the site structure
    • Customize logo and color schemes
  • Build in additional features
    • Meeting minutes application
    • Indexes and categories to quickly reach areas of interest
  • Introduce beta-testing team members to the MozaicTWiki, collect and respond to feedback
  • Modify default user documentation for MozaicTWiki features
• Phase 1
  • Train Mozaic team
    • Introduce TWiki concept and structure
    • Create user accounts
    • Practice creating and editing MozaicTWiki content
    • Open MozaicTWiki for all team members
  • Collect feedback on site structure and templates
• Phase 2
  • Integrate MozaicTWiki knowledgebase tool into project design and knowledge capture activities

Conclusion

One year following the conception of this project, two Mozaic volunteers have concluded and transitioned projects to incoming volunteers, utilizing MozaicTWiki to generate expansive and accessible knowledge to ensure uninterrupted learning and development.

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