What's a Wiki?

Watch the video over on the right for a quick explanation of a Wetpaint wiki.

The website you're looking at right now is a wiki. Wikis are web sites that can be viewed and modified by users directly. They support online collaboration and communication, and are super easy to use. No techy skills necessary!

Discovery Exercise

1. Open a second window or tab so you can have these instructions open. (Go to File > New Window or New Tab). Copy the website address from this page and paste it into the new window or tab. You'll have the same page open twice.
   
   
2. In one of the windows, click the "Join this wiki"site" button in the upper-right corner of the page to get started on this program.
   (If you already have a Wetpaint account, you can use that login for this wiki too.)
   
   
3. Then go to My Profile, click on the Messages tab and click compose message.
   
   
4. Send a message on this wiki to shoseph (that's Sho Ikeda's name on this wiki) and tell us where you work. When we get the message, we'll change the permissions on this wiki so that you can fully particpate. (See who can participate for more information.)
   
   
5. Now, go back to My Profile.
   
   
6. Click on Easy Edit in your profile (look for a green oval on the upper left) and answer the questions in the box. This will be the way we keep track of who's taking the program. Don't worry about posting an image right away; we'll be doing that in the next module.
   
   
7. When you've done that, come back to this page.
   
   
8. To complete this exercise, go to the bottom of this page, where it says Threads. You'll see a thread that is entitled, I did it! (Wikis).
   
   
9. Click Post a new thread (underneath and over to the right).
   
   
10. Tell us how easy or hard it was to join the wiki and to set up your profile. Please write at least one paragraph about your experience with the wiki.

A note about privacy:

• This is a public wiki. Anyone can view all pages on this wiki. However, only invited members can edit this wiki.
• You don't have to use your real name as your username. Feel free to use any work-appropriate username you'd like.
• If you use an alias, Virtual Library needs to know who you are to track completion rates for the program. We'll keep this information private. Expect an email from us asking your real name if you decide to use an alias.

Why should you know about wikis?

One of the most popular websites in the world is a wiki. You probably guessed it already, it's Wikipedia. Wikipedia is so popular and influential that it recently was awarded a $3 million grant to "increase the quality of its content and the reach of its services."

Our library users are using Wikipedia instead of reference books. Why? This format is easier to update than print, allows unlimited numbers of people to contribute, and is easily accessible on the web from anywhere in the world at any time of day. Can a print encyclopedia sitting on the shelf in a library claim any of those things?

Wikis are fully searchable, too. Look in the left-hand column for the search box. Since creating, editing, searching and contributing to a wiki is so easy, they've become very popular.

Possible library uses:

• Collaborative workspace for staff working on a large project (PCPL has done this for big projects, like the Tucson Festival of Books, which we are helping coordinate)
  
• As a subject guide for complex subjects like business
• As an FAQ site for those hard-to-research questions you don't want to look up again
  

More information for the curious

Threads
Feel free to post questions and concerns and respond to others comments in the threads at the bottom of this page as well. Remember, learning and collaboration are the reason we're here.

Play Pages
If you find interesting links, photos or videos you want to share, head on over to Play Pages to find out how to post them to this wiki.

Wiki Features
In this wiki, you can:

• Send another member a message.
• Edit your profile whenever you like.
• Start discussion threads at the bottom of each page OR on the Discussion Forum tab.
• Upload photos to the photo gallery.

What else can you find to do?

Wiki Communities
Most people who visit wikis out on the web are readers. Some people become contributors or editors, if they have a strong enough interest. On Wikipedia, many people contribute, because the site is so popular. Yes, people can write things that are not true, but the community is so large that errors are caught quickly and corrected quickly. When people are invested in a community like Wikipedia, they work to keep it accurate.

Revisions
Wikis keep track of revisions made to each page. So if you change a page, then I change a page, we can both go back to see the previous versions of that page.

Other Wikis
Wikipedia is not the only wiki out there. Some other examples of popular wikis include:

• wikiHow - an online How To wiki
• Wiktionary - an online dictionary
• Wikitravel - a worldwide travel guide
  

Library-related Wiki

• Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki
  

Wiki Services
Wiki services are not all equal. The wiki you're looking at is provided by Wetpaint, which allows people to create free wikis, invite any number of people to help keep them up-to-date, and lets people upload photos, embed videos, and create profiles. Wetpaint hosts the site for you. You don't need a web server, an I.T. staff, or any money at all. Why is that? They allow ads. You might have seen them up at the top left, below the table of contents. The ads pay for the service, so you don't have to. Many free web 2.0 sites have ads on them.

Other wiki services may offer different features. Some are paid services. This usually allows your wiki to be ad free. It may also let you customize the wiki or add your own branding, They may or may not allow you to upload images. When we were looking for a way to host Baker's Dozen, we looked at the WikiMatrix to compare features.

Other free wiki services:

• pbwiki
• wikispaces
  

Why "wiki?"
Wiki comes from "wiki wiki," a Hawaiian term for "quick." Wikis are quick to set up, quick to learn, and quick to edit.



Back to The 13 Things.