Wiki Wonder

Oh, this is so cool! I have to confess that when people talked about wikis, I just nodded and tried to look wise, but I had no idea what they were. When Commoncraft (I just LOVE this guy) was explaining what a wiki was, I immediate saw the wonderful potential for it.
First of all, my husband is planning a large youth event with several other ministers. They have to get together every couple of weeks right now, and, while they love getting together, they can't always all attend. A wiki would simplify things tremendously, and end the flurry of emails.
Then, I thought about some of the events that I plan, and how wonderful it would be to just update one place and let everyone else check to see what's been accomplished, and what still needs to be done, and remind themselves of what their responsibilities are (mainly me, because I chronically forget, or lose the paper I wrote it on...)
THEN, I thought about the book club group that I lead, and how we could use one of these to keep track of books we've read, what we're thinking about what we're currently reading, ask to borrow books, and make book suggestions. TOO COOL!

Then I took a look at some of the wiki links that were included in the tutorial. I really liked the SJCPL wiki. It was easy to use and I could find things so easily. I'd love for our libraries to have something like this. It would be easier than trying to use the catalog to just browse for things that I might be interested in and then get them. I wasn't as impressed by the book lovers wiki, although I had expected to like it better because of the content. I found it difficult to use, and not particulary intuitive--it just seemed awkward to use. That was an ah-ha moment--it isn't just that wikis are wonderful, it goes back (again) to the way things are organized. Well organized wikis are wonderful, and the others are not. I also enjoyed the library success wiki. It made such sense to put the best of all ideas for libraries in one place so that you don't have to do your own trial and error--you could benefit from other's. It makes us work smarter, not harder, to share information like this. Brilliant.

So, thinking of yet another application for a wiki, I've set one up for my family while we plan my daughter's wedding in August. That way, we can make changes/updates there and not have to worry about emailing. With an RSS, I don't even have to worry about missing something, and I can keep both sides of the family informed and up to date. Lovely.

Thanks yet again for a great lesson.