Whether... whither... wiki?!

Ahh! the 'wiki', that now embedded-in-the-language-generic-reference to a collaborative website/tool/online community.

We all know Wikipedia, that huge open community encyclopedia with lots of stuff about so many things. Useful, at times fascinating but trustworthy? Everyone's heard of the problems, yet because of that same 'openness', the 'sense of community' perhaps, the problems are resolved, the glitches are fixed - and the answers get better - but the trust/credibility issue is still there. It isn't the Encyclopaedia Britannica - that isn't what it should be nor is it what it is meant to be!? (just look at Wikipedia's entry on the Ency Brit! - seems extensive and interesting - but just can't resist comparing usage figures with Wikipedia itself!)

Yet, the concept lends itself as an excellent resource to small or closed 'communities' for collaboration, knowledge sharing, etc. The ease and speed with which entries can be added/modified leading to the development of the 'knowledge base' certainly beats sending everyone an email 'here's an interesting article', trawling thru a discussion list or wading thru a selection of blogs (feeds, etc notwithstanding).

We here at my work abode have one underway ("in development"). We're using the MediaWiki software, so everyone can guess what it looks like ;) yet it starting to come together well. As one of the chosen few, I 'have the power!' and am working on a couple of articles presently - resources for our in-house trainers and on search engines (gee!, that one will be hard to find content for - not! ) - but as per my last blog entry - sorting the wheat from the chaff is what they need us librarians for!

Also played the required lesson in the 'sandpit' (sorry, we're Aussie here - we think outside the 'box' ;) of PLCMC's Learning 2.0 Wiki. Added a few items. Nice to have a play around with different software than we're using at work - no great surprises but gives the eyes a break to have a different screen scene!

Lots of articles to read out there about wikis - just 'ask' via your favourite search engine!

A couple to peruse - for library things, try Library Success (love the cute, anachronistic? touch - the logo is a catalogue drawer! Only people watching re-runs of the first Ghostbusters movie will know what they are soon! - just kidding library folks! - we'll know - or some of us will...???), The Blogging Libraries Wiki (a wiki to find blogs - how much mashing can we do?) or LISWiki. Just a couple of others - WikiHow, a wiki to look at when you're using sites like How Stuff Works; or History Wiki.