GCpedia is an internal wiki used by the Government of Canada, for collaboration and knowledge sharing. GCpedia is only accessible to Government of Canada employees .The user base is potentially 250,000 people, from over 150 departments and agencies. Users must be registered if they wish to add or modify content, so that all contributions are attributable. GCpedia has been used as a platform to take, publish, and distribute meeting minutes, to create project status dashboards, to collaboratively author interdepartmental papers, to brainstorm, and to create wiki-based briefing books. GCpedia is managed by the GCtools Team, which also manages GCconnex and GCcollab. The team is part of Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat.
Contents
Launch
GCpedia was formally launched as a government-wide pilot, at the annual Government Technology Exhibition and Conference (GTEC) in Ottawa, Canada on October 28, 2008.
Potential uses
This is a list of existing and possible uses on GCpedia:
GCTools
The Government of Canada's internal Web 2.0 environment currently comprises two collaborative tools, collectively referred to as the GCTools, which were developed and are operated by the Treasury Board Secretariat for use amongst Government of Canada employees:
These tools are run on open source software and are accessible and available to all employees in the Government of Canada who have access to SCNet, the central Government of Canada network and are not available externally. They are the only internal collaborative tools freely available to all Government of Canada employees. A third tool called GCforums was closed as an active platform in early 2015 and activity has migrated to GCconnex.
Infrastructure
GCpedia runs on MediaWiki software. It is hosted on the Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) Mid-Range Application Hosting Service.
Adoption history
According to the August 2009 content review, government of Canada public servants were using GCpedia primarily to share information and gather project/performance feedback; and build collaborative and interdepartmental communities of practice; establish terms of reference for interdepartmental committees; and as support networks across a wide range of topics.
Canada's CIO, Corinne Charette, said in October 2009 of the success of GCpedia: "Clearly this is a community that is ripe for collaboration".
In March 31, 2010, the Clerk of the Privy Council, Wayne Wouters, officially joined GCpedia with both a personal user page and a page inviting ideas and feedback from government employees.
In April 2010 Wouters stated that deputy heads within the Government of Canada must advance Public Service Renewal in their departments by various means including public servants "experimenting with Web 2.0 technology, including GCpedia".
In a September 2010 article, Marj Akerley is quoted as stating, "As government employees become more comfortable with new technology and seek mechanisms for collaboration, their confidence in the effectiveness of the tools is increasing".
"The federal public service utilizes GCpedia...to facilitate collaboration and the sharing of information." - Maclean's magazine, September 16, 2010
GCpedia is "a key medium for our staff in the regions to learn what's available, what's happening, in the National Capital Region and other regions, and it has helped tear down bureaucratic barriers between departments." - quote from Corinne Charette, CIO of Canada - Ottawa Citizen October 6, 2010
"GCpedia has demonstrated that public servants have an interest in sharing information and collecting feedback on their projects."
Usage
As of January 24,2017, there were: