Policy Wiki

Summary
The purpose, reason and principles of the Fontys ICT Policy Wiki are explained.

Fontys ICT wants to provide its employees with an easily accessible and adaptable source of information about the Fontys ICT policy. Moreover, Fontys ICT wants to unlock its policy for internal and external accountability continuously in an unambiguous manner. To this end, an Fontys ICT Policy Wiki has been set up, which guarantees that every employee has access to the most up-to-date version of the policy information. Within the Fontys ICT Policy Wiki, descriptions are given on the basis of keywords or labels. Topics are linked to each other via links, so that each term only needs to be described once and that multiple versions of the same documents are avoided. We always refer to the original source, therefore we link to the portals of (for example) Fontys ICT and Fontys.

In a large and growing organisation, it is important that basic information about the organisation can be found quickly and unequivocally. The portal of Fontys ICT offers an adequate solution for operational matters and knowledge sharing. In order to efficiently shape the relationship between documents in the same environment, a wiki is a suitable environment. Changes in one document often have consequences for other documents, while this is not overlooked at the time of modification. In a wiki environment (sub)topics are described on separate pages (lemma's), which can easily be linked to each other with hyperlinks.

The following principles have been formulated in order to arrive at a suitable information system for policy information:

• One place: documents (information) must be kept in one place.
• Version management: previous versions of developed pages should be easy to find. This automatically creates an overview of the history and the development phases of the various (policy) topics.
• Actuality: this is ensured because changes can be processed quickly by (all) employees of Fontys ICT and especially by those who are involved in the content of certain topics or pages.
• Ownership: all employees of Fontys ICT are jointly responsible for the information, at different levels and from different roles.
• Exportability: the information required must be easy to export to certain formats or forms of publication.
• Links and metadata: the easy creation of hyperlinks and metadata (use of labels or tags) enables rapid links to be established with information on other information systems.

The use of a Policy Wiki offers a solution for all these principles. With the wiki structure, each description is included only once, because documents are described in conjunction with each other and terms are linked to each other by means of hyperlinks. An editorial team will carry out structural maintenance on the wiki for this purpose. Characteristic for setting up the wiki is working with short texts, images and diagrams. Per page 1 subject is explained.

Policy information is the information that indicates the lines for the realisation of (organisational) objectives.

What information can you find on the Policy Wiki?

• Basic information about the organisation. See also above under the paragraph Reason;
• Information that has been established within Fontys ICT ;
• Up-to-date information to reflect the policy at a given time;
• Information intended for internal and external accountability.

Information that (preferably) does not belong on it:

• Information on operational matters and information that regularly changes or is linked to persons or data;
• Manuals, i.e. not: the manuals themselves, well: references to (useful) manuals and where to find them, inside or outside Fontys ICT .

Important points of view with regard to making the policy information available are:

• Transparency: Fontys ICT wants to show everyone what is happening in education.
• Unambiguous terms: names and terms often change. We want to promote the use of common terms and names as much as possible. the Policy Wiki contains the correct terms.
• Unequivocal policy: if it is not on the Policy Wiki, it is not a valid policy.
• External visitation: the Policy Wiki is an adequate and effective source of information for the visiting panel.

Operational matters and things that change regularly and/or are linked to persons or data are not included in the Policy Wiki. If desired, this can be referred to via a link. The Fontys ICT Policy Wiki is primarily intended for Fontys ICT employees. For more information on exclusions, see the disclaimer of this Policy Wiki.

The success of the Policy Wiki depends on the following.

Inside Fontys ICT

• Sufficient expertise from administrators (technical and functional), editors and users of the Policy Wiki
• The use of the most up-to-date versions of documents that have also been established by the responsible bodies. Usually, these are adopted by the Managing Director, the Leadership Team (LT), the Extended Leadership Team (XLT) or one of the following bodies: Operations Managers, People Managers, Professors, Programme Managers.

Basic software
The Fontys ICT Policy Wiki is built using the DokuWiki software available in open access. This software is custom edited for Fontys ICT .

Editorial team
An editorial team takes care of the daily maintenance of the contents of the Policy Wiki: processing changes, checking the interconnections, monitoring the rules of the game and the use of concepts.

Technical support
Technical support is needed for day-to-day management in the event of imperfections or changes in the software. The technical - and application management is provided by the department II&A of Fontys ICT .