Here is an interesting application of wikis. A website called eHow now has a social wiki called wikiHow. On wikiHow anyone can write instructional material about anything and some other member can modify it. Today there are instruction How to Turn Around a Bad Day at Work. I also see related links to How to Lose Your Fear of Being Fired and How to Call in Sick When You Just Need a Day Off. I do not think you find that last topic addressed very often, maybe for good reasons. Over 100,000 people have looked at that last one.
Not all the help is work related. I see instructions for wrapping a sari, designing your own home, making ricotta cheese, reading aviation routine reports, and hacking a coke machine. There is obviously no ethics panel reviewing the subjects. It looks like you have the right to say anything.
At the bottom of each page is the user name of the creator of the instructional page and names of those who have modified it. You can vote whether a page is accurate.
Next time I need some strange advice, like how to cut in line at a bar, I will try this site.
Seriously, I can imagine legislators or congress people looking at this and say that "There are a few bad pages - let's shut it down!" That would be very wrong. There actually is very much that is good and helpful and democratic. This kind of website is what makes the web so interesting.
Showing posts with label wikis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wikis. Show all posts
Friday, March 23, 2007
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Two New Wikis
Yesterday I joined two new wikis.
While working on my funding request for this summer's American Library Association Conference in Washington, D.C., I discovered that the Official Conference Wiki is already up. It looks much like the wikis from 2005 and 2006, to which I contributed some museum information and book recommendations. There will be much useful conference and visitor information. I signed up and was the second person to join the blogging list.
Catching up on my reading of AL Direct, I learned about Nancy Pearl's Book Lust Wiki, which is trying to build a community of book lovers. As of a few minutes ago, there are already 787 members. I joined, added two links to blog lists, and started a profile. I also added a title to the Best Books of 2006 page.
Later yesterday I got welcome messages for joining both of the wikis. What a good day!
While working on my funding request for this summer's American Library Association Conference in Washington, D.C., I discovered that the Official Conference Wiki is already up. It looks much like the wikis from 2005 and 2006, to which I contributed some museum information and book recommendations. There will be much useful conference and visitor information. I signed up and was the second person to join the blogging list.
Catching up on my reading of AL Direct, I learned about Nancy Pearl's Book Lust Wiki, which is trying to build a community of book lovers. As of a few minutes ago, there are already 787 members. I joined, added two links to blog lists, and started a profile. I also added a title to the Best Books of 2006 page.
Later yesterday I got welcome messages for joining both of the wikis. What a good day!
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
A Wiki as a Research Guide by Chad Boeninger
You would think that I would have heard enough about wikis already at Internet Librarian 2006. I attended the preconference presented by Meredith Farkas, which was quite good. I was trying some other tracks this morning, and found myself wanting to hear more about wikis instead. So, I snuck in to Wikis for Libraries in time to hear Chad Boeninger give the final presentation.
Chad's title was A Wiki as a Research Guide. He told about how he turned three subject guides that he uses with business students at Ohio University into wikis. He used to update them annually and the students would lose their copies, often before they left the classroom. Now they are wikis, which he can update easily, are readily available anywhere there is a web connection, and link to many of the tools cited.
His wiki does not fit the stereotype. He is basically the only person adding to it, but that is okay with him. It works because his students and his fellow librarians can turn to it, saving him many questions. It is also searchable.
I was struck by the idea of a wiki working where other software has failed. We used to have rolodexes at the reference desk. When we got rid of them in the 1990s, I started a simple database of stray information for ready reference in Microsoft Works. It worked pretty well. When we replaced our computers with Works with computers that had Office, I tried to move the data to the Access database software. It did not work. I started a new Access database, but I found it more trouble than I liked. The ready reference database faded away.
I still find bits of information that I wish I could just put in an easy database. I have stuck some tidbits in blog posts, both on my own blog and on the staff intranet, but I have handed the information inconsistently.
Voila! Chad said the wiki was easily searchable. A wiki might make a nice place to build a new ready reference database. I have to try it!
Chad's title was A Wiki as a Research Guide. He told about how he turned three subject guides that he uses with business students at Ohio University into wikis. He used to update them annually and the students would lose their copies, often before they left the classroom. Now they are wikis, which he can update easily, are readily available anywhere there is a web connection, and link to many of the tools cited.
His wiki does not fit the stereotype. He is basically the only person adding to it, but that is okay with him. It works because his students and his fellow librarians can turn to it, saving him many questions. It is also searchable.
I was struck by the idea of a wiki working where other software has failed. We used to have rolodexes at the reference desk. When we got rid of them in the 1990s, I started a simple database of stray information for ready reference in Microsoft Works. It worked pretty well. When we replaced our computers with Works with computers that had Office, I tried to move the data to the Access database software. It did not work. I started a new Access database, but I found it more trouble than I liked. The ready reference database faded away.
I still find bits of information that I wish I could just put in an easy database. I have stuck some tidbits in blog posts, both on my own blog and on the staff intranet, but I have handed the information inconsistently.
Voila! Chad said the wiki was easily searchable. A wiki might make a nice place to build a new ready reference database. I have to try it!
Sunday, October 22, 2006
Wikis: Basics, Tools, & Strategies by Meredith Farkas
According to Meredith Farkas, the word "wiki" comes from the Hawaiian word meaning "quick." In the mid-1990s, Ward Cunningham and the Portland Pattern Repository created the first wiki software as a quick and easy content management system for collaborative projects. Of course, the biggest and most famous collaboration to date is the Wikipedia, but Meredith highlighted many other large and small efforts in her Internet Librarian 2006 preconference program Wikis: Basics, Tools, & Strategies.
Conference wikis, fan wikis, wikis as library staff intranets, wikis as library websites, wikis to manage short term projects, wikis for professional organizations, wikis for community information networks, and wikis as courseware figured in Meredith's presentation. Access to viewing wikis may be public or restricted. Access to editing can also be public or restricted. She showed many samples in the process of showing how wikis are set up and managed. She also managed to show samples created with several of the current software packages, many of which are free.
After deciding why a wiki is needed (never start one just to be cool), one of the most important decisions is what software to use. Meredith pointed us to WikiMatrix, which compares software. In general, she said that it is better to download software onto your own server if possible, so you will have more control, but it is possible to use wikis that are hosted by the software companies as well. MediaWiki and PmWiki are the downloadable software we most discussed, while hosted software included PBWiki and WetPaint.
A new trend is toward wikis that are WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get). This means that the wiki looks much like a word processor and the users do not have to know much syntax, such as using special characters for highlighting and linking.
When choosing software, you should consider these issues:
When you set up a wiki, be sure to create a beginning structure and seed it with content. Many wiki volunteers are leery of adding to blank pages, so it helps to have content started. To help the wiki's audience, have documentation and instructional material ready.
Of the many wikis shown during the preconference, these were my favorites:
RocWiki (community information in Rochester, New York)
St. Joseph County Public Library Subject Guides
University of South Carolina Aiken Library website
Princeton Public Library's summer reading program Book Lovers Wiki
Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki
The possibilities are many, and wikis can be easy to set up. I could now do one tonight!
il2006
There was much more to this presentation. The slides will be available on the Internet Librarian 2006 website several weeks after the conference.
Conference wikis, fan wikis, wikis as library staff intranets, wikis as library websites, wikis to manage short term projects, wikis for professional organizations, wikis for community information networks, and wikis as courseware figured in Meredith's presentation. Access to viewing wikis may be public or restricted. Access to editing can also be public or restricted. She showed many samples in the process of showing how wikis are set up and managed. She also managed to show samples created with several of the current software packages, many of which are free.
After deciding why a wiki is needed (never start one just to be cool), one of the most important decisions is what software to use. Meredith pointed us to WikiMatrix, which compares software. In general, she said that it is better to download software onto your own server if possible, so you will have more control, but it is possible to use wikis that are hosted by the software companies as well. MediaWiki and PmWiki are the downloadable software we most discussed, while hosted software included PBWiki and WetPaint.
A new trend is toward wikis that are WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get). This means that the wiki looks much like a word processor and the users do not have to know much syntax, such as using special characters for highlighting and linking.
When choosing software, you should consider these issues:
- Programming language (a server issue)
- Ease of installation
- Security
- Permissions
- Spam prevention
- Ease of use
- Cost
- Version control
- Syntax
- Ability to hold discussions
- RSS feeds
- Ability to change looks
- Availability of extentions
- Prospects for development and support from the software company
When you set up a wiki, be sure to create a beginning structure and seed it with content. Many wiki volunteers are leery of adding to blank pages, so it helps to have content started. To help the wiki's audience, have documentation and instructional material ready.
Of the many wikis shown during the preconference, these were my favorites:
RocWiki (community information in Rochester, New York)
St. Joseph County Public Library Subject Guides
University of South Carolina Aiken Library website
Princeton Public Library's summer reading program Book Lovers Wiki
Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki
The possibilities are many, and wikis can be easy to set up. I could now do one tonight!
il2006
There was much more to this presentation. The slides will be available on the Internet Librarian 2006 website several weeks after the conference.
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