Task 6: Online Collaboration - What is a Wiki?

A wiki (Hawaiian for quick) is a collaborative web site authoring tool. A wiki allows anyone to contibute and edit content on a web site, without requiring any technical knowledge. That is, authors don't need to know HTML or any programming languages. All that is required is access to the Internet, so editors don't need to be in the same place, and a password should the site owner choose to have one.

The most well known and popular use of wiki software is Wikipedia, an online open community encyclopedia, where anyone and contribute and add or edit articles about anything. Wikipedia is built using the free MediaWiki software but there are other places to get your own free wiki such as PBwiki and Wetpaint.

For some more background on wikis you can read Using Wikis to Create Online Communities and/or have a look at this video on Wikis in Plain English.



First...
Explore some Library based wikis. Different Libraries are using wikis in different ways, for example:

• St. Joseph County Public Library's Subject Guides.
• iread, a readers' advisory wiki from Iowa librarians.
• The Biz Wiki, another subject guide, this time focussed on business resources available through Ohio University Libraries.
• A profession wide wiki established to record and share Library Best Practice - Library Success.

Next...
Edit a wiki.

"Sandbox" is the term that wikis often use to describe the area of the website that should be used for pure play. For this explore-and-play-with-wikis exercise, you are asked to add an entry or two to the PBwiki Learning 2.0 wiki. The Learning 2.0 Favorites wiki was set up for the original Learning 2.0 program and it's for nothing but play! The theme of this wiki is simply Favorites : Favorite books, favorite vacation spots, favorite restaurants, favorite anything... All you need to do is play and add your thoughts.

To mark your adventure on this site, you should add your blog to the wiki. Go to the Favourite Blogs page and click on the edit button at the top of the page. Login with the password: plcmc and your name and email address. Add a line in the Australian Blogs section and put your blog in the list. Then go ahead and add some more entries to other pages in the wiki.

The editor is pretty self explanatory but you can read explanations of how to edit a PBwiki on the FAQ page, especially the section on the Point and Click Editor.

Be bold, explore, play! This is a sandbox wiki and no one expects you to be an expert - just have a go. Besides, you can't break a wiki because you can always roll back any page to an earlier version.

If you really want to participate why not try editing the iread wiki and make this readers' advisory wiki an even better resource. It is also built using PBwiki. The password is readers.

Finally...
Write a post on your blog about the potential of wikis for the library profession.

Extension...
There is much argument in the blogosphere regarding the relative merits of Web 2.0 and in particular whether encouraging everybody to participate in creating the information landscape is positive or negative. Wikipedia has become a touchstone of sorts in this debate due to the impact it has had and the nature of contributions - ie. anyone can edit articles anonymously.

Read Michael Gorman's, The Sleep of Reason Part 1 and Part 2, on the Britannica blog and then these responses by Clay Shirky and Danah Boyd to his argument.

Look around for some more articles that explore the relative values of Britannica and Wikipedia, such as these.

Consider your own position on Wikipedia and other Web 2.0 tools as information sources and write a blog post about your thoughts.