How to build an internal knowledge base?

Jim’s message:

Hi all,  I work for a tech company full of engineers. I'd like to build a simple knowledge base without having to purchase a 3rd party app. Does anyone have any pointers?  I've started just a wiki-style site, but it's so unstructured and it's not catching on with my engineers.

Elliot is asking a good question, "What does Knowledge Base provide?"  You need to answer the question, which I would believe will lead to the next question.

This is the information organization challenge with this platform.  What does your Knowledge Base taxonomy look like; have you defined terms such as types of knowledge, categories the knowledge is filed under.  It does not have to perfect, however in order for your engineers to find, discover, search for knowledge the terms need to be defined and understood.   You will also need someone to continually oversee that knowledge is being filed and maintain correctly.  Assigning engineers to specific terms, helps build acceptance and adoption; because they feel like they own it.

Once your initial taxonomy is defined, then you get determine the best widget the platform has to offer.  So, the next question is, "What does your company like to use?"   Documents are still very common, so start with a drop off library which aligns with your taxonomy and allow the engineers to evolve.  Blogs are great why to allow for opinions to be shared with others about a document (knowledge).   Wikis are a great way to jump start to sharing some knowledge.  

Don't try to force the technology on the engineers; find one or two engineers who are highly engaging.  Let those engineers drive the knowledge base and what it starts to evolve.