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Wikis Wiki Wiki

Jessica Baumgart
Newsroom Wikis: Wiki Applications in the Newsroom
Special Libraries Association 2006 Annual Conference
Monday, June 12, 2006

Raise your hand if you:
Know what a wiki is [about 3/4 of the 147 people in the room raised their hands]
Edit a wiki every now and then [about 1/4 of the people in the room raised their hands]
Contribute to a wiki regularly [about 1/6 of the people in the room raised their hands]
Have your own wiki [about 7-10 hands went up, including some different ones from the previous 2 questions]
Manage a wiki [about 5 people raised their hands]
Have installed a wiki on a server [only two people raised their hands]

What's a Wiki?
Specialized Web site allowing easy editing
Usually has a visible edit link or button
Wiki syntax is usually easy to learn
It's not HTML
The name of the tool comes from Hawaiian: wiki wiki means "quick." I named my presentation Wikis Wiki Wiki because I hope to explain wikis quickly.

A Web site anyone can edit?
Isn't that bad?

Not necessarily.

If anyone can edit, remember that means anyone can edit.

Anyone Editing is Good.
Aids communication, especially among decentralized team members or over time
Encourages participation
Serves as a central repository for information

Anyone Editing is Bad.
"Help! I erased everything on the wiki!"
Technology comfort level
Ownership
Wiki spam & vandalism
Loss of content control

Some wikis have access controls.

Caution 1:
Storing Information
Anyone can edit the wiki
Compatibility with other storage formats
The right or best tool

Caution 2:
Using a wiki as a source
Content can change at any moment
Who's responsible for the content?
Credentials?

Wikis Come in Different Colors
Different wiki platforms have different functionality
Think about what you want or will use the wiki for
Desirable features
Cost
Intranet, Web site, hosted

Learn More
Wikimania: http://wikimania2006.wikimedia.org/
Other wiki conferences
SLA

Different Wikis:

Atom: http://www.intertwingly.net/wiki/pie/
RSS on a blog; Atom on a wiki: irony?

BarCamp: http://barcamp.org/BarCampBoston
BarCamp Registration: just sign up on the wiki, public list of attendees

Codex Dresden: http://epsilon.media.mit.edu/codex/
Team work
Distributed, real time collaboration
Archive for the future

Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki: http://www.libsuccess.org/
A collaboration among librarians to share what theyíre doing

Newslib mini: http://newslibmini.pbwiki.com/ (password (given with permission): librarians)

reddit: http://reddit.com/help/reddiquette
Help screen and other pages done by wiki, editing is restricted to registered members

SLA Boston Chapter: http://silversmith.olin.edu/slawiki/FrontPage (password protected)
SLA Boston Programming

Wikipedia: http://www.wikipedia.org/
No edit link on the front page, only registered users can create new articles


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Last Updated: 06/14/06
Jessica Baumgart
newsdivisionweb@yahoo.com