Wikis

I understand so much more about wikis after reading the items in this section. I can see how they could be really useful for groups working on a project or collectively trying to organize information.

The wiki that I explored was Library Research Guides Norwich University, Northfield, Vermont, USA (mediawiki) (http://library2.norwich.edu/guide/index.php/Main_Page). I think this is a good way to use a wiki. They use a consistent format, so a user can find her way around the site, and each subject link provides links to a subject specialist, catalog searches, and ejournals. My guess, is that this is easier for the librarians to maintain (as opposed to the work involved in creating and maintaining traditional institutional web pages).

Random conversations about success or failure of wikis seem to support the findings of John P. Walker that successful implementation of wikis requires a pre-existing social/work network among the people who will create the wiki. If the people involved don't already work well together, the wiki becomes difficult to sustain.

(Identifying and Overcoming Barriers to the Successful Adoption and Use of Wikis in Collaborative Knowledge Management by John P. Walker, Jr. Honor's thesis from 2006. Available at http://hdl.handle.net/1901/267 )

I think one of the more innovative uses of wikis that I've seen is using them to organize "unconferences." The unconference wiki allows people to add information for possible inclusion in the event, to identify others with similar interests, and to ask questions of the organizers. An example is the Pres4Lib 2009 unconference scheduled for June at the Princeton Public Library. See http://pres4lib.pbworks.com/ for details.