Thing 10 - Wikis

This focus on Wikis was fun and informative. The video was particularly well done. It demonstrated quite well how a wiki can be a great tool compared to email when a group of people is trying to accomplish something - like organizing a camping trip.

One of my colleagues set up a wiki for my work group, and it was fun to explore the tool, but we had very few contributions. A few people added notes after attending a conference or meeting, but no one else ever commented or edited (that I knew of).

It was informative to review some wikis used in libraries. In particular, it is amazing to see how effective it can be for organizing reviews of books. A real and collaborative 'readers advisory'.

On the other hand, one of the other wikis is now limited to people who are members, as there had been vandalism to the site. The problem with a resource available to anonymous people.

I took a look at the library bloggers wiki, which looks like someplace I could stand to spend a lot more time. There's even a section for 'special' libraries. Publicly funded, of course, none obviously corporate.

I only looked closely at one, the 'Royal College of Midwives' library, and they posted their last blog in February 2008: The RCM Library is closing on February 16th 2008. The stock is being put into storage and the library staff have been declared redundant. There will therefore be no more entries in this blog. It will be retained on Blogger, however, for reference.

Such a sad thing, and memorialized here, on a blog from Minnesota.

Which brings me back to my library organization's defunct wiki (last I looked). We probably lacked a reason to go to the wiki, and had no incentive to contribute. I heard people say that they are worried about writing or complaining - which they seem to do in every workplace. People need some sort of incentive. The readers wikis were a great example. . .

Maybe a place to go for fun? The joke of the day? Of course, humour can be a fine line, with sharp teeth if you slip.