Week 8

Wikis

I really like the idea of wikis and think that wikipaedia is great as you get enthusiasts happily referencing obscure topics which library patrons then come and ask you about. I thought it was a shame that on the Book lovers wiki people had to email their review to the moderator before it could be posted and there was no opportunity to comment or add to people's reviews so I don't know if I would classify it as a wiki in the true sense of the word. Having said that I found via that wiki an excellent book on gardening which I have now got out. I didn't think that many of the examples of library wikis were using the technology to its full potential. So i did a google search for best wikis. The one below is from the Flat Classroom project which took students from classes in different countries and paired them up to work on a joint wiki. They used internet tools such as skype and msn to communicate and have even made so amazing videos talking about what they have done. i think the true potential for wikis is collaboration. i know that Heritage has dreams of allowing the public to one day put tags on photos in the digital photo collection so that people could name the people/ locations in the photos with additional information. i think that would be a huge benefit to researchers.