Building
Collaborative
Applications with
Wikis
Meredith Farkas
November 11, 2007
MSLA Conference

What you will learn
 What a wiki is
 What wikis are good for, what they’re not so good
for
 How libraries and other groups are successfully
using wikis
 How to get started with wikis
 Tips on developing a successful wiki

What is a wiki?
 Content management system
 Allows people to collaboratively develop a Web
site without any tech-savvy
 Wiki = quick (in Hawaiian)
 All community members can add to or edit the
work of others

Wiki background
 Ward Cunningham and the Portland Pattern
Repository
 Wikipedia
 Conference wikis, fan wikis, wiki knowledgebases
 Wikis in the library! Still often controlled access.
 Organizations jump on the wiki bandwagon

Wiki Structure
 All wikis start off as a single blank page
 Pages are created and connected by hyperlinks
 No ownership of pages; anyone can change the
work of others

Wiki Components
 Pages community members can add to or edit
(example)
 Discussion area for each page
 List of all of the changes made to a particular page
(version control)
 List of all changes made to all pages.

Wiki Syntax
 Ways to format text, change color, create links,
create tables, etc.
 Wikipedia editor’s guide
 Not difficult to learn, but different
 Differences for each wiki
 WYSIWYG makes for a flatter learning curve

Wikis vs. Blogs
• No one owns • A person owns
content their posts
• No specific • Organized in
organization reverse chron.
(hyperlinks) order
• Anyone can edit • Only author can
other people’s work edit their own
A person owns work (others can
their post comment)

Wikis vs. Blogs
• Perpetual work in • Posts are
progress permanent
• Good for • Good for
collaborative group disseminating
work informaton/
starting a
dialogue

Why wiki?
 Easy to use
 Web-based
 Anyone can make changes
 Version control
 Findability
 Many free and open-source wikis
 Flexible and extensible

Why not wiki?
 Too open (trust issues)
 Concerns about ownership of content
 Disorganized
 Vandalism and spam
Wikis aren't for everyone. If control is a major issue with
the site you're developing, then a wiki may not be right
for your project.

Questions?

Wikis in
Practice

How libraries can use wikis with
their patrons
 Community wiki
 Subject guide wiki
 Wiki as courseware or Web site
 Wiki for collaborative learning
 Wiki for capitalizing on the collective
intelligence

Community wikis
 RocWiki (Rochester, NY)
 Davis Wiki (Davis, CA)
 Arbor Wiki (Ann Arbor, MI)
 PGHWiki (Pittsburgh, PA)
 A good start: Mac Library Experience

Subject guides
 Ohio University Library’s Biz Wiki
 St. Joseph County Public Library
Subject Guides
 Florida State University Subject
Guides

Wiki as Website and courseware
 University of South Carolina Aiken
Library Web site
 Bemidji State University eRhetoric
course wiki
 English 10 Literature Wiki

Wiki for collaborative
learning
• Space for group projects
• Curriculum topic wiki
• Part of research class
• Edit the wikipedia!
• Stimulate class discussions
• Student space to build portfolio of work

Capitalizing on the collective
intelligence
• Collaborative note-taking
• Collaborative study guide
• Collaboratively-developed course guides
- Plymouth Regional High School Library
• Book reviews - Princeton Public Library’s
Book Lovers Wiki

How librarians can
use wikis
 Staff Intranet
 Collaborative document editing
 Collaboratively-developed manual
 Conference wikis
 Knowledgebase
 Planning space for conferences

Wiki as Intranet for info
sharing
 Most are behind the firewall or are password
protected
 Albany County Public Library Staff Wiki
 Lakeview High School NCA Wiki

Collaborative document
editing
 ZohoWriter
 Google Docs and Spreadsheets
 You could even just use something like
PBWiki!

Collaboratively-developed manual
 Print manuals are really hard to update!
 Antioch University New England Library
Staff Training and Support Wiki

Conference wikis
 ALA 2005 Chicago Wiki
 ALA 2006 New Orleans Wiki
 IL 2007 Wiki
 Wikimania 2006

Wiki as professional
knowledgebase
 Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki
 CGCS Library Media Supervisors’ Network
Wiki

Planning space for
conferences
 Hard to plan a conference with people
from all over the place.
 Five Weeks to a Social Library
 BarCamp
 PodCon

Questions?

Wiki Tips
How to develop and maintain a
successful wiki

Wiki Tips: Software
 Popular options for wiki hosted on your
server
 MediaWiki
 PmWiki
 Twiki
 Confluence ($$$)

Wiki Tips: Software (cont’d)
 Popular Options for wikis hosted by
the software company
 PBWiki
 WetPaint
 SeedWiki
 Wikispaces

Wiki Tips: Software (cont’d)
 If you want control, no ads, etc., host the wiki
on your server.
 If you don’t have server space, need the wiki
for a small time-limited project, or are
worried about maintaining a new tech, go
with a hosted wiki.
 Check out the WikiMatrix when thinking
about which software to use

Choosing software: What
to consider
 Programming language
 Ease of installation
 Security
 Permissioning
 Spam prevention
 Ease of use
 Cost
 Version control

What to consider (cont’d)
 Syntax
 Ability to hold discussions
 RSS
 Ability to change look
 Extensions
 Trajectory of development/support of
development

Wiki Tips: Seeding the wiki
 No one wants to add to an empty wiki
 Also, people often don’t know what to add
 Add some content to the major categories before
going live
 Creating an organizational scheme will prevent
orphan links and chaos

Wiki Tips: Documentation
 Wikis need lots of info for novice users
 What is a wiki
 What can you do with this wiki
 How to edit the wiki
 FAQ
 Whom to contact for more help
 If possible, offer trainings (not everyone learns from
reading a list of instructions)

Wiki Tips: Content
development
 Do lots of marketing
 If possible, offer trainings
 Offer incentives
 Don’t do it all yourself!
 Give the wiki a grassroots feel, make it welcoming.

Wiki Tips: Management
 Security
 Should you require registration?
 Dealing with spam
 Install spam-killing plugins or blacklists
 Bad Behavior plugin.
 Monitor the wiki several times a day
 Get to know and love RSS
 Find dedicated helpers!!!

How to deal with posts
you don’t like
 Guidelines
 Limit to on-topic posts
 Take a note from the Wikipedia’s policies and
guidelines
 Get a group of volunteers to patrol a public wiki
 If you need to delete something - use discussion area
to explain why things were deleted.

Questions?
Comments?
Meredith Farkas
mgfarkas at gmail dot com
http://meredith.wolfwater.com/wordpress/
AIM: librarianmer
Links and more resources at http://
meredithfarkas.wetpaint.com/