Running Head: Management of Web 2.

0 Tools
Management of Web 2.0 Tools
Katie Head
University Of South Carolina Aiken
EDET 746-061
On my honor as a University of South Carolina (Aiken) student, I have completed my
work according to the principle of Academic Integrity. I have neither given nor received
any unauthorized aid on this assignment
Katie Head

9/29/2015

Management of Web 2.0 Tools

Introduction
Web 2.0 tools have transformed the way individuals interact, offering platforms
that encourage collaboration and resource sharing among the web. Web 2.0 tools have
proven to be especially effective in learning media due to the information sharing of
content (Sulisworo, 2012). The difference between Web 2.0 tools and their
predecessor, Web 1.0 tools, is that the new tools have been configured around the
activities of the user. This makes the user more than just a visitor, but a contributor
(Konstantinidis, Theodosiadou, Pappos, 2013).
One area where Web 2.0 can be greatly utilized is within corporate organizational
learning. For a company to be successful, they need to invest time and energy into
giving access to current knowledge, while exploring new paths of knowledge. This
knowledge can be presented and expanded upon, through the use of Web 2.0 tools.
Tools like social media, wikis, and blogs promote a social environment that helps
encourage communication. The dynamic sharing of knowledge can help facilitate
learning, and create a competitive edge for companies using these tools (Menolli,
Reinehr, Malucelli, 2013).
The Need
EmoryDay is a media agency that specializes in web design, web development,
and digital marketing for small businesses. While the company is a small business, it is
growing quickly, and is regularly onboarding new hires.
There is currently no central hub for training documentation, or onboarding
procedures. When a new hire is on-boarded, they often receive inadequate and
unorganized training. The goal for EmoryDay is to create a learning management
platform, or intranet where the training material can be housed and updated. Since
various team members will be contributing to this content, finding user-friendly
collaborative web 2.0 tools to build the intranet will be key. Cost will also be a factor,
given the small budget EmoryDay has allocated to this project. This paper will examine
two different web 2.0 tools, Wikispaces Private Label and Google Sites to determine
which is the best option for creating the training portal.
Wikispaces Private Label
A wiki is a website that allows users to create content and structure of a website
through collaboration. Wikispaces is a wiki publishing and hosting platform that creates
a hub for social content creation for education. This hosting service was previously free
for anyone that created an account, however after being acquired by TSL Education in
2014, this changed. Now Wikispaces exclusively provides free hosting for K-12 and
higher education (Wikipedia, n.d.). Private wikis for businesses, like EmoryDay, and
other organizations can use Wikispaces Private label for Business for an annual fee.
This is an upgraded version of the free Wikispaces, and offers an extensive list of
custom features.
Wikispaces Private Label allows you to create secure environment where you
can create an unlimited amount of Wikis. The site allows you to bring in company
branding elements by providing templates and customizable themes through editable
CSS. The wikis pages themselves are easy to create, and widgets can help create rich
content that includes elements like video and news feeds. The navigation and site
structure is easy to edit and customize.

Management of Web 2.0 Tools

Wikispaces provides unlimited amounts of storage, so the site can be used as a

sharing platform for media, documents, and other files. Users can set up discussion
boards that can be applied to the entire wiki, or individual pages. The discussions and
other engagement activities, like community portals, can trigger email notifications to
monitor engagement.
Site security is an important feature that Private Label Wikispaces promotes. The
visibility of Wikis, pages, and files, can be edited so users need permissions to view.
Files can also be kept secure by enabling SSL encryption. All support is handled
through Wikispaces support staff.
There are a few disadvantages of Wikispaces Private Label. The first being the
cost, at $1,000 a year annual fee. Given the fact that there are more cost effective wiki
hosting sites, this seems steep for a small business. The other aspect is the open
editing. While there is some control over what users can edit, the basic structure of a
wiki is that anyone involved can change the content. There is no approval system for
content being posted by users; therefor a strict eye needs to be kept on what is being
published.
Wikispaces is a great option for building a training portal for EmoryDay. The
EmoryDay staff is technically savvy, and have worked within content management
systems extensively. Given the easy interface and editing within the wiki structure and
pages, very little training would be needed in order for the staff to publish and edit
content. Given the fact that EmoryDay is a design agency, the customizable templates
are another needed feature. The training portal needs to look professional, and
represent the company branding. Website security is also important to the agency.
Given the training material may contain sensitive information, like passwords, security
protocol, or client information, the Wikispaces security measures are a great feature.
Finally the interaction and email notifications could be extremely helpful to create
interaction with new hires and current staff. This would be effective in helping answer
questions new hires may have about specific pieces of content.
The reservations about using Wikispaces are justifying the cost and scale. While
the training program will expand as EmoryDay grows in size, right now it is still very
much in development stages. Current training documentation is mostly simple
documents that could be pulled together within a few website pages. There has yet to
be any multimedia, like videos to add to training modules. The storage is also an
element of the site that would go to waste. EmoryDay currently uses Dropbox for
storage, which all employees have access to, so there is no need for this feature. With
the $1,000 price tag, it is hard to justify at using Wikispaces Private Label, given many
of the features would not be utilized. However, in the future when EmoryDay has the
resources to create a more robust training portal, Wikispaces Private Label should
definitely be re-considered.
Google Sites
Google Sites is a wiki and webpage publisher offered as part of the Google Apps
Tools For Work Suite. One of the specialties of the tool is creating company intranets,
which can include a project site to help with project management. Google Sites
integrates with Google Apps, allowing for content to be pulled straight from Google
Drive into the website. This makes collaboration, sharing of documents, and uploading
multimedia elements easy. The interface is easy to use, and the WYSIWYG HTML

Management of Web 2.0 Tools

editor provides easy customization to pages. For users familiar with Google Apps, the
interface reflects the other tools that Google offers, which can create a quick transition
to learning Google Sites.
A strong feature of Google Apps is the ability to view and use the tool across any
operating system. Google Sites will display consistently across mobile, tablet, and
desktop, whether you are using Mac, Windows, Iphone, or Android. Google Sites also
offers security at multiple levels of data access and transfer. The full document controls
help to keep your wikis secure. With multi-level permissions, content can be made
private to outside users. Authors can also choose who has permission to share and edit
content.
One of the strongest features that Google Sites offers is that the tool is free. By
registering for a Google App account, you are automatically given access to Google
Sites. There are upgraded Google Apps For Work options available at $5 a month and
$10 a month. These premium packages offer company emails, extended storage, video
chat, and other extras not included in the basic Google Apps account.
There are several disadvantages to using Google Sites. While Google Sites
provides seamless integration with its own apps, other apps outside of the Google
network can be difficult to integrate. Adding custom features like java script, or heavy
editing of templates through CSS can be problematic as well. Finally, creating the site
under your domain name can be a difficult process. By default, all a Google Site domain
will look similar to: http://sites.google.com/site/sitename/. For appearances and
branding this can look unprofessional.
For EmoryDay, Google Sites is the perfect choice to start building a training
portal. The company itself uses Google Docs for all client documentation and
presentations. Account managers also use Google Analytics and Google Adwords on a
daily basis. Given the fact that all staff members are familiar with the Google App
interface, it will require very little training. The initial training documents that have been
created are housed in Google Docs, so this will make the content migration quick and
easy. EmoryDay also uses YouTube for client videos, so this will be another easy way to
integrate new content if multimedia training is produced. All EmoryDay staff members
are familiar with the permissions systems in Google, so providing appropriate editing
and sharing controls will be less of a concern than on other platforms. EmoryDay has
never had an issue with Google Security, and alerts are provided if multiple users try to
enter an account. This has given the agency the peace of mind that data is protected.
Since the platform is free, if features of Google Sites go unused, it will not be a waste of
resources.
As far as the drawback of Google Sites, these are all issues the EmoryDay
developers can resolve. The graphic designers will be able to address any template
design issues, but given the simple nature of the intranet, custom features like java
script will not be needed. The developers can map the custom site to a new EmoryDay
URL. This task may have been out of scope for another business, but is a task the
developers at EmoryDay complete on a regular basis.
Google Sites will help EmoryDay create the foundations of a training portal
website that will be scalable to meeting the companys needs. If the development of the
training material goes longer than projected, budget considerations will not need to be

Management of Web 2.0 Tools

made due to the free cost. The most important feature of this tool is how easy the
integration and collaboration will be for the entire EmoryDay team.
Conclusion
When choosing Web 2.0 tools, companies and organizations need to consider
their current needs, and how the tool will be integrated into their current processes and
budget. By choosing tools that can easily encourage collaboration, new knowledge can
be gained, and goals can be met.

Management of Web 2.0 Tools

References
Sulisworo, D. (2012). Designing the online collaborative learning using wikispaces. iJET
(7)1. Retrieved from: http://eprints.uad.ac.id/1355/1/2145.pdf
Konstandtinidis, A., Theodosiadou, D., Pappos, C. (2013). Web 2.0 tools for supporting
teaching. Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education 14(4)21. Retrieved from:
http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1064378.pdf
Menolli, A., Reinehr S., Malucelli A. (2013). Improving Organizational Learning: Defining
Units of Learning from Social Tools 12(2)273-290. Retrieved from:
http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1064378.pdf
Wikispaces (n.d.) Retrieved September 26, 2015 from:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikispaces