On Wikis

I'm a huge fan of Wikipedia. I so often find the information I need there. With all the inherent difficulties of allowing 'anyone' to add information. It is still fantastic. My faith in the essential goodness of people is restored by projects such as this Project Gutenberg and The Human Genome Project. How bad can humanity be if we care enough to give our time, knowledge and expertise for free?

I was less familiar with the use of Wiki's although I have heard of people using them to collaborate on social projects ie the example about organising a camping trip. Until I saw the example of a community using their Wiki to highlight interesting places to visit. A travel directory compiled by one person or even a group of people can only go so far. It is limited by what the person or group has seen, heard about and experienced. What about some of those out of the way places off the beaten track which are none the less worthwhile?

The process of the collaboration is the greatest strength of the information. It's funny how something that seems so scary in the beginning. What - create a document and allow anyone to change it? We seem to spend our whole lives trying to stop people amending and changing our words. Microsoft has spent lost of money and programming time trying to make Word able to be used collaboratively. I know what I would rather be using!

I think one area that could really benefit from a Wiki is Family History/Geneology. Many of our Genealogy customers start at the same place and ask the same questions. A Wiki could help provide answers to some of these 'early' questions.

We have a group that volunteers to assist people with their genealogy questions. This acknowledges that the field of genealogy is so varied and complicated that few library staff are ever going to be anything more than proficient in helping customers with their inquiries. Most of these volunteers have been researching for years and are well passed the beginning stages of research. I think it must be frustrating for them to help so many 'newbies' with little to no experience. A Wiki could help them guide newbies more easily. Additionally, a Wiki could be used to document resources which can help with particular questions.

Finally, without being to mean spirited, sometimes our genealogists get so excited about the information they find that they want to tell the story to someone. Perhaps a Wiki could be a means of sharing those stories?

I'm sure there are many other possible uses including use as a staff only tool. I can really see us using this one.