MentorNet Wiki Helps Women Entrepreneurs Connect and Collaborate
HerBusiness maximises with free non-profit license of Atlassian Confluence, the enterprise wiki
Sydney, Australia (BusinessWire) April 2007 – MentorNet, a program from HerBusiness (formerly the ABN), now offers a wiki for mentors and peers to collaborate and receive e-learning and mentoring. The wiki helps members connect and collaborate more effectively by giving each person a platform to introduce new ideas, comment on the work of others, and develop ideas from start to finish.
The MentorNet program, funded under the Australian Government’s Building Entrepreneurship in Small Business (BESB) program offers a vital and rewarding program for women business-owners by matching them with highly qualified mentors that can help train and guide the entrepreneurs through the hurdles of business ownership. To help achieve this, ABN utilises contemporary e-learning technology, including webinars, blogs, and teleconferences.
Today, MentorNet adds another tool: online collaboration via a wiki. A wiki is a website that anyone can edit. While they have been around for nearly a decade, its only in recent years that wikis have become more mainstream and user-friendly. Not only is ABN forging a new, creative way to use technology, but it also shines as an example of how all organisations can be innovative in apply new “Enterprise 2.0” technology to help their customers and members. Specifically, the MentorNet wiki acts as an extranet that enables collaborative authoring. In addition, to enhance the portal and user experience, they have created “mashups” with other technology, including Flickr photo sharing, for example.
“From a learning perspective, the philosophical underpinnings of the MentorNet design are providing amazing results,” says Anne Bartlett-Bragg who designed MentorNet for BN. “We are seeing demonstrated evidence of the mentorees applying the business principles they’re learning on the wiki to their own contexts — and it’s only 2 months into the program!” “Not only is the technology of Atlassian’s Confluence providing an enriched experience,” continues Bartlett-Bragg, “but the learning philosophies are enabling immediate application and improvement into their businesses. What more could we ask for?”
Atlassian Confluence is the enterprise wiki used by over 2,500 organisations in more than 45 countries to help them share knowledge and collaborate. Since the company was founded five years ago, Atlassian has given away more than 2,500 free non-profit and open source licenses.
“It’s incredibly rewarding to see how our technology can be used to help out a community,” says Mike Cannon-Brookes, co-founder and CEO at Atlassian. “Seeing Confluence used by MentorNet as a means to train and connect their members around the world reinforces our commitment of giving back to the community.”
Anyone can learn more about Confluence by visiting http://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence.
About HerBusiness HerBusiness provides business education for women across Australia and facilitates opportunities for them to network, learn and be inspired by role models and by each other.
About Atlassian Atlassian develops affordable, lightweight software that helps enterprises collaborate better. Its products include Confluence, widely recognized as the most advanced enterprise wiki, and JIRA, one of the world’s most popular issue trackers for IT project management. The company has more than 5,500 customers worldwide, including 30 of the world’s top 50 corporations. For more information, visit www.atlassian.com.
Media Contact Mike Maney +1 215 345 7096 media@atlassian.com 
