In the past it was occasionally difficult to persuade large organisations such as the NHS or Social Services to make the I.T. changes to allow the full use of wiki manuals, as they run best in Firefox or Chrome browsers (although they do run OK in the Windows Explorer browser that many NHS Trusts use as their default browser.)

Simple fixes

Use a better browser

It may be possible to make a specific case for a team using tiddlymanuals to be allowed to download and use the freely available Firefox browser, which is a much better browser than Internet Explorer (especially its earlier versions) and which works much better with the simple technology that TiddlyManuals use. Google Chrome is another free option. Most NHS Trusts now allow use of these browsers as well as the default Windows Explorer.

Permit streaming video

Apply for an exception for a team using Tiddlymanuals so that they are allowed to access Youtube or other streaming video content. Much (most) of the AMBIT video content is situated on YouTube, and many large organisations have historically been anxious about "everyone" in the Trust using streaming video resources (these are demanding on "bandwidth") but in reality, staff in a tiddlymanual are not going to be spending all day watching the Videos! There is further Advice on getting permissions to view YouTube clips.

Upgrade Flash player

With the advent of newer video handling only a very few videos still require the Flash Player, so this "fix" is largely redundant now. Some Trusts did not (or do not) update the Flash Player that older videos/browsers required to play videos and in the past this made it hard to access video content in the manual. Just occasionally you may be prompted to "upgrade to the latest version of Flash" and your local IT dept will be able to help you do this.

Strategy

Find a friendly senior member of the I.T. department in your organisation - many of these people are only too aware of the limitations of the systems they are paid to maintain, and are looking for interesting, creative ways to improve the organisation's use of IT, in ways that are not too expensive. It is important to emphasise the fact that this is a "future-facing" approach, and that it is free. The UK government published guidelines advising offices to look at open source solutions as a first port of call. These manuals are OpenSource.

Ideally, broker a meeting between senior managers in your organisation with a more strategic outlook, and the IT department, to consider how the organisation wishes to move forwards using IT to support its aims. Suggest that your team might be seen as a small test case for this kind of approach.

See also some of the external resources laid out below.

External resources

There are some helpful online resources to show to managers in the NHS, that may help to allay concerns or overcome common barriers to change that occur:

An official NHS site called the Armchair Involvement project describes itself as "Helping you to use new technology to engage people in service improvement" which ticks a lot of boxes.

A site, referenced from the above site, called Social Strategy - breaking down the barriers lists 50 hurdles or barriers to large public organisations making best use of web 2.0 technology.

Keep up, the world is changing!

Finally, the UK government itself is recommending that opensource solutions are looked at by its various offices before they commit to old-style 'closed-source' resources - See UK Government support for Open Source