Ewwww. I'm not sure I'm sold on the whole wiki thing. I have used wikipedia before for general quick facts - it's sometimes easier to find that information than trying a general google search. But I wouldn't use it for real research or anything I was clueless about. It's just not trustworthy enough.
I tried surfing around on the Stevens County wiki for some ideas of how we might use them in our organization. Frankly, I found it rather boring. I would really worry about putting all of that information in the public collaborative domain - who's to say that someone wouldn't just go in and delete everything? Plus, from what I found out trying to play with the fake KRL wiki page, it's a lot harder than it looks and I prefer leaving it up to the talented professionals who can get the information out there and make it look pretty and easy to navigate at the same time.
The Book Lust wiki was a bit more interesting. I suppose if we had a patron-supported wiki for reading recommendations, that might feasible. I just know that we'd have to have staff regulating the contributions constantly for content and I don't know that it would really be worth the trade-off.
Also, it was a lot more complicated to contribute to the wiki than I had thought! I thought it would be more like blogging somehow, which I guess it is in a way. But I was afraid to leave it in edit mode for too long, so I typed my text in a word file and tried to copy and paste. Apparently, it's not so simple. I managed to make my contribution, eventually, but to me it's really not worth the trouble and I wouldn't have bothered if I didn't have to.
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2 comments:
loved the 2 videos you posted.
editing in the wiki does have a bit of a learning curve at first - it takes a bit of playing with, but it does get easier if you keep poking around a bit. you're not the only one who had a similar reaction at first
re: someone coming in and deleting everything, there are some protections against that. the wiki saves every edit and you can always revert back to a prior page if something happens, either accidentally or maliciously. you can also lock pages from editing and/or require people to register before they contribute.
wikis definitely present some trade-offs, as you mention. but as i watch this practice wiki grow, little by little each day, and see the humor and creativity people are bringing to it, i can't help but think the collaborative aspect of it is worth the trade-offs.
given that people have only dipped their toes in the wiki-waters for about two weeks, i think what folks have done in a pretty short time is pretty cool.
bc
...me no likey wikis either...great minds think alike!
msg
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