Friday, February 20, 2009

Thing 10 - Wikis

First of all, if you want to see a great short video explaining how a wiki works (mom?) watch this YouTube video by Common Craft. Wish I had thought of this!

I have used and/or started about 4 or 5 wikis in my day and it hasn't really caught on with me as an every day thing or a super useful tool. I think my problem involves the number of people involved. One of the first wikis I was involved with failed because there were only 4 of us, and we communicate very well over email. Another one failed because the purpose was not clear. Another one failed because well, the purpose was also not clear. And if I can complain just a little bit, I have too many passwords, and the wiki ones are frequently forgotten.

I love wikis don't get me wrong. I am determined to make one successful. Success=participation by many folks on an ongoing basis. I also think wikis are hard to customize. You need to know stuff that I don't know yet. I like to make websites so I guess I would rather do that and make it look pretty. But that defeats the wikiness of the whole thing, because then I am the only one who can edit and who wants that? Boring!

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