LIS 9763

Hi everyone,

Sorry that I didn't post last week and warn you that it was going to be my blogging holiday, I know realize that that is what I should have done.  I have a confession to make.  Blogging scares me.  I know that sounds weird, but I feel this huge pressure to say something profound because everyone can read what I have to say.  The fact is, I'm so new to social software that I don't think that I can be profound.  Anyway, just thought I'd put that out there...I need to stop getting so worked up about what I have to write each week.

In terms of wikis, wow, I didn't realize the possible applications that libraries could use them for!  I also wondered where the word "wiki" came from, I was very interested to learn that the word "wiki" means  "quick" in Hawaiian...their language sounds so much cooler than English!

Having done the readings I was interested to see the different perspectives on the pros and cons of wikis.  On one hand wikis are unanimously proven to encourage the creation of online communities and to encourage collaboration.  The "Know it all" article pointed out that wikipedia is so popular and edited so frequently that for every 3 errors within the Enclyclopedia Britanica there were only 4 errors found in Wikipedia!  I wonder what the 'experts' have to say about that one?  I also realized that depending on the level of access that is provided by the wiki (that being the extent to which different people can contribute) the wider the breadth can be of a wiki's content.  I have personally used wikipedia before many times, but I have never thought to look up some of the strange types of content that the "Know it all" article showed that wikipedia makes available.  It was also interesting to find out about the creation of wiki-vocabulary.  I have never heard of a "WikiTroll" before!  I suppose as much as wikis, like Wikipedia can be open to the whole world (it has over 200 languages), it is still an example of the digital divide.  Yes, I think that wikipedia is a great resource because it is accessible to so many people, but the knowledge that can be gained through it is not available to everyone...what about all the people who can't afford computers or who don't have
access to the internet for some other reason?

Another important concept that I saw raised in the "Know it all" article is the "good enough knowledge" concept.  Although stats do show that wikipedia has a relatively high level of accuracy overall-in comparison to the Enclyclopedia Britanica, there is also proof that it's contents can be vandelized.  Whoever goes on the wikipedia site the most, for example, is most able to control its content, regardless of its biases or inaccuracies.  Many of these innaccuracies are edited out, but I'm sure many do slide through the cracks.

There were a lot a really useful and/or practical peices of information made available through the other articles as well, such as the need for structure within a wiki, the ability to edit the structure of a wiki as well as the content, and ways in which libraries could apply wikis differently.  This information about the flexibility of wikis caused me to think of them as being similar to the concept of "free trade" but in the field of information, not economics.  I had previously thought of the idea of making a wiki available in an intranet setting for library
employees, however, I had not thought of making it open to the public.  I simply thought how could a wiki be used by the public to benefit a library?  After all, my main comparison was wikipedia.  I thought that an open access wiki would discourage people from using library resources, however, now I realize that a wiki could actually be used to benefit them!  Some of the best practices that I think could be used is applying a wiki to library internet site for public networking purposes.  What a famulous way to interchange knowledge & ideas about what could benefit the community, or things such as community events & activities.  This would
be more beneficial, I believe, than simply posting ads for events on a library webpage.  Another excellent use of a wiki could be for annotating the library catalogue.  I am a HUGE fan of this idea!  That would be so helpful when it comes to looking up items in a catalogue and figuring out what their contents are without strictly relying on the title, subject headings, keywords, and snipits from the beginning of the book/ article or whatever.
Well, that is my 2 cents worth about wikis at the moment.  It may not be enlightening, but I do think that the topic is interesting on the whole, because some day you and I might have enough say to implement social software in our workplaces!