Thing 7: Wikis

Plays well with others

picture this scenario: you're working on a team with lots of ideas blipping back and forth between group members in the form of conversations, comments, documents, and revisions. Now imagine an online work space where team members can share and edit documents together while maintaining continuous communication. Sounds like a great way to tackle a team project, right? Many people are discovering that wikis are an efficient and rewarding technology platform that enables collaborative work environments. Wikipedia is probably the most famous wiki workspace, but wiki platforms are versatile and powerful enough to adapt to large and small-scale projects. For youth services librarians, wikis provide a number of features that can be used to share ideas, generate content, facilitate feedback, lead discussions, and bring peer production & learning into one localized web space. As you all have figured out by now, this 21 Things For 21st Century Kid Libs program is using a wiki format (in conjunction with the blog) as our means of communication among the participants.

So what exactly is a wiki? Essentially, it is a simple website that allows multiple participants to easily edit and contribute content. The word "wiki" means "fast" in Hawaiian, and the developer of the first wiki, Ward Cunningham, borrowed the name from the "Wiki Wiki Shuttle Bus" at Honolulu International Airport. It is a great mental metaphor for the technology since a wiki is like a speedy and simple form of transport that connects people together with ideas. Since that first WikiWikiWeb launch in 1995, numerous wiki-hosting platforms have become available that allow users to create free, collaborative web-spaces that do not require technical skills. PBWorks, Wikia, and WikiSpaces are some popular ones that will let you get your wiki on in just a few clicks.

Starting a wiki can be as easy as:

1. Providing an email address to a wiki hosting site
2. Signing up as an administrator
3. Inviting people to your space

It is also a good idea to spend some time planning out a simple structure for your wiki content.Wikis that are successful at generating community contributions are also ones in which users can easily navigate between topics and conversations. The Front Page of a wiki is often used for visitors to orient themselves by providing a description, context, and a list of sub-topics.

Many wikis focus around a specified topic, a community group, or a collaborative project. As with any group project, a little bit of structure goes a long way to create an environment for success. Don't worry - as children's librarians, this is an area where your planning and organizing skills can really shine.

Here's a short video from Common Craft to get started:

Some wikis to explore
Since they are so easy to use, wiki platforms lend themselves to many creative uses. As mentioned above, librarians and others have been taking advantage of the collaborative possibilities to provide rich resources for those who serve youth audiences. Check out these "wiki-tastic" examples:

• The ALSC Wiki is a great resource to discuss different topics within children's library services with peers across the country. In addition to being a portal to the array of ALSC interest group wikis, there is a range of topics to refer and contribute to.
• The Child Lit Wiki describes itself as "a resource for recommending books to children, based on the books they have already enjoyed."
• Library Success: a Best Practices Wiki is a great example of a community wiki geared towards - you guessed it - librarians. Created by Meredith Farkas, author of the blog "Information Wants to be Free," the Library Success wiki is home to posts about management, leadership, reader's advisory, programming for kids and teens, gaming, and much more.
• Teacher Librarian Wiki focuses on topics to support school librarians, and is moderated by Joyce Valenza.
• The New Mexico State Library website has a comprehensive list of blog, wiki, and listserv resources for youth services librarians.

Now it's time for you to get your wiki on! Create a wiki of your own. This can be done by visiting one of the free wiki platforms: PBWorks, Wikia, or WikiSpaces or a another one of your own choice. We want you to get a feel for the navigation and layout of a wiki so go ahead and pick any topic that sounds fun, silly, strange, super, or wacky. It could be as simple as planning a menu for your next summer BBQ, talking about some books you've read, or sharing a list of movies you want to see. Invite a few people (some of the CATC committee members or other participanats!) to your wiki to add, edit, or comment on a post. Use the sidebar and front page as a way to display a hyper-linked table of contents to your pages.

If you need more of a challenge, or already have an existing wiki, try changing the visual theme of your site. You can also use the opportunity to embed a video, or post some images, and add multimedia content.

Most importantly, have fun and don't forget to blog about your new-found wiki wisdom! Some questions to ponder to get your brain moving:

• How could your library use a wiki?
• Did you find using the wiki difficult or pretty intuitive? Would training staff or the public to use a wiki present challenges?
• Keep wikis in mind for Week 8 when we talk about Google Docs - there are some interesting similarities and differences to note.