Week 15: Wikis

A wikity wikity wack!

For week 15 of the 23 Things Kansas program, librarians across Kansas pondered the wiki, that curious mix of website and database. Being in reference for over 10 years, it is hard not to come across wikis, and despite the bad press they get in some library circles, the concept of a participatory online database is a great leap forward in information management and dissemination. Of course there are issues of "authority," but ever article, book, folio, and other publication has issues of "authority."  Given time, resources, and dedication, any wiki can become authoritative, accurate, and reliable.

As part the assignment for Week 15 we needed to examine and add to some existing wiki. My favorite wiki to browse when I need some down time, is Wookieepedia--I am not sure they could cram more geeky-goodness in one website if they tried!--so I used that.  What I found was that I had no more than altered/added/composed an entry then it was changed. Perhaps this was some automatic feature, but it was fairly discouraging. It reminded me of a colleague's story of how she spent a week battling someone on Wikipedia over the motto of Topeka. She would change it and someone would change it back. She finally gave up.

Well, off to Wookieepedia to kill some time.

What are some of your favorite wikis?...and don't say wikipedia!