wiki.whitehouse.gov

In the article “America Online” in the latest issue of Wired (#17.02 which isn’t online yet) I cam across the following paragraph:

The incoming administration is still working to assess the implications of the Presidential Records Act, the post-Nixon legislation requiring the preservation of all White House written communications. But that means that once any page goes up on the White House site, it can’t be altered, only archived and replaced, greatly slowing down the process of modifying and enhancing pages.

So, ok, I understand this and think it’s a good thing. But I instantly thought that this would be the perfect  use for a wiki. Just have Wiki software be the underlying system that ran www.whitehouse.gov and you’d instantly have a traceable record, and archived copy, of every version of the page that’s ever been from day-one forward.

I’d like to think that at least one of the smart people on the transition team had already thought of this but I’ll be submitting it to the folks at www.change.gov just in case they haven’t.

Thing #17: PBWiki

I'm a firm believer that PBWiki is a great way to get your feet wet when it comes to creating and editing a wiki. My only complaint is that the WISIWYG editor locks up Firefox. Oh, well, off to IE I go. I added to the Favorite Music page in our wiki. Check it out if you're wondering.

Thing #16: Wikis wikis everywhere

I'm a fan of wikis but when used appropriately. In other words, no matter how much you like wikis at a technology, that doesn't mean they're right for all situations. Here's a way to think about it: blogs are for conversation, wikis are for collaboration. Just because you have three people editing your Web site, that doesn't mean it should be based on wiki software.

Additionally, those that say that Wikipedia isn't a good resource, are using a different Wikipedia than I am. I use it almost daily. Occasionally I find myself looking elsewhere to verify the information Wikipedia contains but generally it is right.

Wikipedia's 2,000,000th English article

El Hormiguero (Spanish for "The Anthill") is a television program with a live audience focusing on comedy, science, and politics. It is hosted and produced by screenwriter Pablo Motos and airs on Cuatro, a Spanish television station. Recurring guests on the show include Luis Piedrahita, Raquel Martos, Flipy (the scientist), and puppet ants Trancas and Barrancas. The program will begin its third season in Fall 2007. It has proved a ratings success, and will expand from a weekly 120-minute show to a daily 40-minute show in its upcoming season.

via Milestone Wikipedia articles

Wikis in Plain English

Another instructional video from the folks @ Common Craft.

PBWiki Educator Videos

The folks at PBWiki now have educator videos available for download for use in presentations.

CIL2007: Learning with Blogs and Wikis

Meredith Farkas & Michelle Boule (http://michellemeredith.pbwiki.com/Learning%20with%20Blogs%20and%20Wikis)

• What is a blog
• frequently updated page with posts presented in reverse-chronological order
  
  
• What's cool about them
• don't need to know HTML
• easy to update
• don't need server space
• outputs RSS
  
  
• How are blogs used in education?
• Course management system
• faculty communication w/ students
• class news
• course reflection
• reflective learning
• space for dialog & feedback
• language/writing practice
• alternative to discussion forum
• [examples shown available on presentation URL above]
• What is a wiki
• a web site anyone in a group can create and edit w/o HTML
• What's cool about it?
• don't need HTML
• quick updating
• everyone can add their 2 cents
• view page history and track changes
• How can wikis be used in education?
• course management system
• stimulate class discussion
• group projects
• student space to build identity and portfolio of work
• Blogs / Wikis cage match
• b: more structured w: less structured
• b: ownership w: egalitarian
  
  
• b: best for chronological order w: knowledgebases, documents, directories
• b: lends itself to reflective writing w: great for working in groups
• b: more pressure to post w: have to trust your students
• Five Weeks to a Social Library
• "The first free, grassroots, completely online course devoted to teaching librarians about social software and how to use it in their libraries."
• Model
• 40 participants
• small group weekly chats
• sync & async presentations
• weekly activities
• participants blog & coment
• final project: implement one tool in your library
• Why?
• continuing education needed
• conference attendance dificult
• One-day workshop not enough
• many online classes require expensive tools
• Drupal
• allowed each student to have a blog
• each post listed on central page
• add-ons like chat rooms
• Drupal creators have control over the site
• many RSS options
• Blogging to reflect on learning
• blogging to get feedback
• blogging to create a record
• Media Wiki
• runs wikipedia
• common in libraries
• lots of documentation
• wikis for directories
• wikis for quick collaborative pages
• wikis for building a personal space
• Steal this idea
• don't have to teach in 5 weeks
• don't have to use the same tools
• don't have to cover the same topics
• do need to provide for reflection of experiment
• do need to allow for many conversations
• do need to use tools that are easy
• do need to be flexible
• do need to hve an open process
• do need multiple modes of learning (audio, video, etc)
• What participants said...
• Tips for blogs in education
• provide documentation and/or training
• keep comments open
• blog to start dialogues
• don't try to control discussions
• allow for unpopular views
• be willing to change based on feedback
• remember that some people are uncomfortable w/ public writing
• Tips for wikis in education
• training often required
• create a sandbox for experimentation
• wikis can get messy
• don't control too much

CIL2007: Project Planning the 2.0 Way

Nicole Engard

• Time to start a new project, what do you do?
• set up a meeting with everyone involved
• start of list of tasks onto calendar
• assign tasks, put on document
• communication via phone & e-mail attachments
• This doesn't work
• everyone knows a little, but no one knows everything
  
  
• A Jenkins we use a blog
• each project has a blog
• any staff can add to any blog
• Then there's the issue of finding information down the road
• Can you find the e-mail of a decision made a year ago?
• Solution: blogs
• web-bases & full-text searchable
• archived & backed up
• visible to all staff, no one is left out
• fewer e-mails
• conversational format
• date & time stamps
• ability to link to relevant pages & comments
• What does the staff think?
• project section of the intranet is the favorite part
• cut down on clutter in inbox
• great having everything in one place
• helped put everything in perspective for end-of-year report
• Project is complete, now what?
• store on shared drive?
• add links on intranet?
• store them in your e-mail?
• print them out?
• Now, a wiki
• all policies and procedures on wiki
• full text searchable
• archived
• visible to all staff
• history of changes
• link to relevant pages & comments
• sound familiar?
• made all staff feel included
• "better than the old way"
• IT staff now documents in the wiki
• no more lost files
• [Live demo]

CIL2007: Millennials and the Library

Marshal Breeding, Vanderbilt Library

• Generations
• Silent Gen
• Baby boomers
• Gen X
• Millennials
• Millennial characteristics
• inate ability for tech
• frenetic multitasking
• comfortable w/ diverse types of digital media
• highly interactive style of working
• The Millennials are coming
• creative, organized, independent
• impatient, skeptical, sometime arrogant
• status and authority don't impress them
• Contrast of Generations charts
  
  
• approach to study and learning
• "they do it all while studying"
• 85% also listen to music
• also...
• tv
• movie
• im
• chat
• shaping collections for millennials
• content
• digital/immediate
• discovery
• more like the web
• access
• anytime/anywhere
• consistent with existing trends
• doesn't conflict w/ needs of library users from previous generations
• in tune w/ strategic direction most libraries have
• a matter of degree
• an urgent need
• boomers and genx are happier w/ traditional content & modes of service
• millennials will move on to non-library info if not satisfied
• a lot at stake
• content of collections
• Ms comfortable w/ content in diverse media
• multimedia
• graphics over text
• music & audio
• video
• Ms love to remix
• collection possibilities
• e-journals/e-books
• podcasts of lectures
• video libraries of stock footage
• news archives
• datasets: census/GIS
• access to collections
• best opportunity for impact
• building collections well underway but how best to provide access
• how to respond to their prefs
• immediate
• mobile
• flexible
• intuitive
  
  
• heightened user expectations
• expectations set by web
• sophisticated web skills
• low tolerance for clunky interface
• confident in their abilities
• problems with status quo
• doesn't meet expectations of current generation
• too many interfaces
• overly complex
• not always intuitive
  
  
• different locations for different types of information
• Best library OPAC: A Card Catalog card on the screen?
• Best we can do?
• Finding Time Magazine Video
• common tools for access to local collections
• library opacs
• links to aggregators/publishers
• cross linking via OpenURL
• journal finding aids
• metasearch engines
• all loosely coupled
• Metasearch
• inherently problematic
• not immediate
• relevancy ranking difficult
• lake of deep results
• interim solution
• Change Underway
• widespread dissatisfaction
  
  
• movement to break out of current mold
• decoupling of the front-end from the back-end
• working toward the next generation of interfaces
• redefinition of the library catalog
• more comprehensive information discovery environments
• better info delivery tools
• more powerful search capabilities
  
  
• more elegant presentation
• comprehensive search service
• more like OAI
• problems of scale diminished
• problems of cooperation exist
• web 2.0 a good start
• more social and collaborative
• tools and tech that foster collaboration
• blogs, wiki, tagging, social bookmarking, user rating, user reviews
• Supporting technologies
• web services
• XML APIs
• AJAX
• Microformats
• Opensearch vs SRU/SRW
• replacement OPACs
• endeca guided navigation
• aquabrowser
• common thread
• decoupled interface
• mass export of catalog data
• alternative search engine
• alternative interface
• expanded discovery and delivery tools
• ex libris primo
• encore from III
• common threads
• decoupled interface
• comprehensive indexes that span multiple resources
• alternative interface
• library developed solutions
• extensible catalog
• university of rochester
• http://www.extensiblecatalog.info/
• redefinition of library catalogs
• question traditional notions
• no longer enough to provide a catalog of just print
• digital resources can't be an afterthought
• multiple interfaces less tenable
• work toward equal footing for digital and print
• interface expectations
• millennials are used to the Web
• used to relevancy ranking
• must be fast
• rich visual information
• facted browsing
• navigational breadcrumbs
• ratings and rankings
• appropriate organizational structures
• LCSH v FAST
• Full MARC v Dublin Core
• OCLC perceptions: Where do your users start?
• Library Discovery Model
• Library as search destination
• non-library nterfaces
• web services are an essential enabling technology
• libraries lag behind in implementation of service oriented architecture
• global arena
• google, yahoo
• google scholar
• ask worldcat
• wikipedia
• google library print
• local v global
  
  
• how to lib collections relate to global realm
• will mass digitization replace local collections
• global arena excels at discovery
• local arena focuses on delivery
• multi-layered information discovery
• google v libraries
• unfounded concern
• google based on discovery
• libraries specialize in delivery

CIL2007: Web 2.0 and What it Means to Libraries

Lee Rainie, Director, Pew Internet and American Life Project

• "I adore librarians"
• Ask a Ninja: What is Podcasting
• The Starting Point
• Tim O'Reilly & John Battelle
• The Web as platform
• netscape v google
• doubleclick v adsense
• akami v bittorrent
• harnesing collective intelligence
• data is the next "intel inside"
• software above the level of a single device
• rich user experiences
• Changes
• cashing - peer to peer
• britannice - wiki
• personal sites - blogging
• evite - upcoming.org
• doubleclick - adsense
• ofoto - flickr
• taxonomy - folksonomies
  
  
• etc
• Web 2.0 meme map
• 6 hallmarks of the Web 2.0 world that matter to libraries
• The Internet has become the computer
• # of computer users is indistinguishable from # of Internet users
• Broadband availability up
• Internet users # up
• wireless connectivity up
• people go online from more places
• # of people accessing internet from libraries has doubled in past 4 years
• broadband turns the internet into a destination
• broadband intensifies people's internet use and it becomes more serious
• broadband makes video a big part of the internet experience
• broadband make people's internet use more social
• Tens of millions of Americans, especially the young, are creating and sharing content online
• 55% of teens have profiles on social networking sites
• 20% of adults have profiles on social networking sites
• SN Profiles: Switchboards for social life
• Teen girls more likely to use all SN features
• 51% of young adults have uploaded photos / 37% of adults
  
  
• 39% of teens share their own creations / 22% of adults
• 33% of teens are tech support for their families & orgs / 13% of adults
• 25% of kids / 33% college students / 12% adults have blogs
• 27% of teens / 14% adults have their own Web site
• 26% teens / 9% adults have created mashups
• 19% teens / 9% adults have an avatar to interact with others
  
  
• 15% teens / 8% adults have created videos
• Even more internet users are accessing the content created by others
• Long Tail audience
• 46% of young users read blogs
• 44% of young adults seek info in wikipedia
• 14% of young users download podcasts
• many are sharing what they know and what they feel online and this is building conversations and communities
• 33% of young adults have rated a product, person, or service online
• 32% of young adults have tagged content
• 25% of YA have commented on videos, also blogs & photos
• tens of thousands are contributing their knowhow and processing power
• 40% of users participate in peer-to-peer
• grid computing
• open source movement
• online Americans are customizing their online experiences
• 40% of YA customize news and other information pages
• 50%+ of YA on specialty listservs
• 25%-33% of YA get RSS feeds
• 5 issues libraries and all online participants must struggle to address - Pam Berger - http://www.infosearcher.org/
• Navigation
• transitioning from linear format to nonlinear in format
• Context
• learning to see connections
• Focus
• practicing reflection & deep thinking
• Skepticism
• learning to evaluate information
• Ethical behavior
• understanding the rules of cyberspace
• The Machine is Using Us
  
  

Technorati Tags: cil2007

Twitter @ CIL2007

If you want to follow the Twitter feed from CIL you can find it in the conference wiki @ http://cil2007.pbwiki.com/Twitter%20Feed. There you can also find the URL for the RSS feed if you wish to subscribe in your aggregator.

If you would like your tweets to show up in this feed send an e-mail with your Twitter username to me (msauers[at]travelinlibrarian.info) and I'll add you.

Wikis circa 1644

I'm listening to a podcast of a class on the history of Information from the University at Berkley and one of the lecturers equated Milton's point in the Areopagitica with that of wikis. Here's what I believe would be the relevant quote:

"And though all the winds of doctrine were let loose to play on the earth, so Truth be in the field, we do injuriously by licensing and prohibiting misdoubt her strength. Let her and Falsehood grapple; who ever knew Truth put to the worse in a free and open encounter?"
— John Milton, Areopagitica, 1644

In other words, if you let everyone have their say, the truth will come out. Sounds like the principle behind Wikipedia and most other wikis. Thoughts?

Library Website Hall of Fame

The Library Success Wiki has a Library Website Hall of Fame section. Two BCR region libraries, Denver Public and BYU, have made the list. None from Nebraska though. I'll put that on my to do list.
Thanks Rosario

Wiccanomics

Wiccanomics
Originally uploaded by travelinlibrarian.

On the flight home from Cedar Rapids the other day I was deep into Wikinomics when the woman sitting next to me, looked up from her bible study book, looked at the cover of the book I was reading and asked "What's wikinomics?" pronouncing the "i" in wiki as an "a". Not knowing how much she knew about the Internet I stated my explaination with "It's about how new Internet technologies are effecting businesses and the economy..." At this point a relieve expression came over her face, she smiled, and said "Oh, I thought it was about witchcraft."

Technology to Michael: "You're not the boss of me!"

I'm in the Eastern Iowa Airport (Cedar Rapids, IA) using the free WiFi to get caught up from this four day trip to Iowa City, IA for two days of BCR workshops and an afternoon speaking to the staff of the Iowa City Public Library about the Social Web as part of their in-service day. Today went well and everyone enjoyed it including myself. The previous two days however, if it could go wrong it did. Cases in point:

• For the blogs class, Blogger finally decided to send everyone creating a new blog to the beta version. This meant that many of my handouts didn't match what they were looking at on the screen, didn't match the screen I was projecting and there were new/changed features that I wasn't prepared to discuss.
• In the RSS workshop, FeedXS finally convinced me that it's useless for class purposes and I was pretty much forced to just tell everyone to skip it and ignore that part of the handouts.
• I taught my podcasting class for the first time and, instead of ending up with a short list of things to tweak for the next time out, I need to redo about 50% of the workshop and change the focus for the second half of the class. And, the BCR FTP server decided that it kept wanting to drop my connection so I couldn't upload the students' MP3 files to the server to get to work with the software I was trying to teach them.
• During the wiki class I instructed all eleven students on how to create a Wikipedia account, something I've done many other times. This time, six of them were able to create accounts while the other five got error messages informing them that six accounts had already been created from that IP address and no other new accounts would be allowed for 24 hours. Turns out that to the outside world all of ICPL's computers are represented by one IP address. Great for the network architecture and for security reasons but it causes problems with Wikipedia's security. A good portion of the class was from that point on a demo instead of hands on.

Needless to say it's been a long week and I need a few solid nights of sleep before getting back to the office on Monday and updating the material for those classes before teaching them again in January.

CAL2006: "The Long Tail" and the Growing Social Nature of Information

Heather Clark, BCR

• How technology is changing how we understand information and in the economy
• Book by Chris Anderson, Editor in chief of Wired magazine
• How does this apply to the library world
• Web 2.0
• move from retreival to interaction on the Web
• Original article in 2004
• why the futurs of business is selling less of more
• theory of change in economics
• paradigm shift regarding hits and misses
• The Long Tail
• [long tail graphic from www.longtail.com/about.html]
• the low sellers in total outsell the total of big sellers
• brick & mortar, focuses on the head, selling many of a few items
• amazon focuses on the long tail as the space requirements are lower
• Comp tech is causing a move away form hits to niche markets
• counter to the 80/20 principle
• Long Tail Themes
• Niche markets
• Disaggregation of content
• smaller bits
• new revenue streams
• Tyranny of Geography
• marketing
• shelf space
• Long Tail Principles
• Democratize production
• new tools
• new producers
• increases amount of content/product
• motivation is not necesarily monetary
• "exposure culture"
• Democratize distribution
• amatures can produce and distribute
• aggregators as warehouses
• Internet is central distribution center
• examples
• Amazon.com
• eBay
• YouTube
• Tecnorati
• Connect supply and demand
• connect supply and demand
• social sharing of information
• the hyperlink phenomenon
• filters
• search engines
• social services
• Google page rank
• Amazon recommender services
• NetFlix user reviews
• Libraries have lost the battle when it comes to the distribution principle
• Libraries need to be the connectors
• Long Tail Assumptions
• Ubiquitous computing
• not everyone has access
• not everyone knows how to use ths access
• Entertainment-centric model
• people will purchase w/o tactile input
• Low costs of networking
• storage
• intensive bandwidth
• system maintenance
• "infinite shelf space"
• Positives
• richer culture
• "pull together parallel tribes"
• easier for artisan & global producers to market their goods
• Negatives
• eroding local culture
• loss of shared culture
• archive for future
• physical items still need shelf space somewhere
• truly profitable?
• Libraries are the long tail!
• Long Tail & Libraries: Currently
• collections
• robust & rich
• reader's advisory and reference services
• original recommender sevice
• no matter the format
• built-in fodder for filters
• MARC record
• obsolete outside the library world
• physical serendipity
• Long Tail & LIbraries: Needs Improvement
• making discovery happen readily
• improving OPAC search functions
• link to local
• expediting delivery
• NetFlix model?
• rethinking resource sharing group
• Find it / Get it browser plugin
• Reader's advisory
• recommender services to patrons
• blogs
• patron reviews in OPACS
• copyright implications
• Conclusions
• will it change the economic world as we know it?
• not dramatically in her opinion
• what about libraries?
• how well do you know your community?
• what can a small library serving a small population can gain from this?
• put up a wiki for a local group then let them add content
• academic
• get your local info to your students
• blackboard
• MySpace & Facebook
• Your environment should guide your application of these concepts

CAL2006: Keeping Current with Technology: How Popular Trends in Technology Can (and Should) be Put to Use in Your Library

Steve Lawson, Colorado College & Emilee Satterwhite, Mesa County Public Library

• http://keepingcurrent.pbwiki.com/
• Blogs
• Website that displays postings in reverse chroological order...
• How are blogs useful for librarians
• professional development
• keep current
• get ideas for the library
• generate discussion
• How do you find the time to read them all?
• use and aggregator such as Bloglines
• How are blogs useful for libraries
• Blogging Libraries Wiki
• communicate between libraries and users
• internal communication
• readers' advisory
• don't let the possible problems keep you from doing it
• How do Emilie and Steve use blogs?
• Blogger
• mcpldteens.blogspot.com
• librarianslove.blogspot.com
• bookleggerlibrarian.blogspot.com
• Moveable Type
• library.coloradocollege.edu/bookends
• /colospgslibs
• /program
• /steve
• /news
• Wikis
• What is a wiki?
• Web page any one can edit
• new pages and links created automatically
• HTML knowledge not necessary
• collaborative
• revision history
• Wikipedia
• the site librarians love to hate
• or is it hate to love
• an encyclopedia can edit
• Wikis for keeping current
• Library Success
• LISWiki
• IRead Wiki
• Library Instruction Wiki
• futurelib
• Blogging Libraries Wiki
• A wiki at your Library
• Michael Sauers on "blogorwiki"
• Intranets
• Conference planning
• Subject guides
• Colloborative space
• Committee space
• Community Wikis
• Setting up your Wiki
• Choose software
• wiki farms
• wiki software
• WikiMatrix
• give it some structure
• set people loose
• Feeds
• What is the point
• keep up with blogs, news, weather, etc.
• need a feed reader
• RSS or Atom
• different flavors of the same thing
• Consume Feeds
• Online readers
• bloglines
• google reader
• stand-along readers
• NetNewsWire Lite
• Sharp Reader
• Find Feeds
• Look for the icon
• Other
• Library Elf
• Package Tracking
• Photos
• wiki changes
• legislation
• weather
• Convey Feeds
• Publish info via feeds
• Examples on presentation wiki
• Create Feeds
• Run blog through FeedBurner
• Generate out fo your courseware
• Out of your ILS
• Podcasting
• What is podcasting
• audio blogging via feeds
• why should we be podcasting
• outreach
• patrons may already be confortable with listening to them
• how are libraries currently podcasting
• book reviews
• poetry
• storytime
• adult news & reviews
• video podcasts
• events
• how to find or listen
• iTunes
• Juice
• podcast search engines
• what equipment/software is needed
• recording software
• microphone
• odeo studio (online hosting)
• basic procedure
• igure out what you're going to say
• say/record
• publish

CAL2006 Conference

Friday and Saturday I'll be attending the Colorado Association of Libraries (CAL) 2006 conference here in Denver, CO. I'll be of course posting to my blog about it as much as I can. Additionally:

• I will be presenting my Tech Terms session on Saturday @ 2pm. At this point I don't know what room I'll be presenting in. (Heather Clark of BCR and Steve Lawson of Colorado College will be performing a special introduction to my presentation. This is something you're not going to want to miss.)
• My latest book Blogging and RSS: A Librarian's Guide will be available for purchase at the BCR booth at a conference discounted price of only $24.00. (Cash and checks only.)
• At 3pm on Saturday during the ice cream social I will be signing my book at the BCR booth.
• At CAL's request I've set up a conference wiki on which will be posted conference updates and session reviews during the conference. Be sure to check it out if you're not attending the conference.
• Yesterday I worked with the folks running the conference to standardize on the tag "cal2006" when it comes to posting flickr photos and blogging. So, if you're looking for photos or other blog posts just search on that tag.

I'm looking forward to catching up with everyone at the conference so be sure to find me and say hi.

blogorwiki

During one discussion at Internet Librarian, I determined that there is a new Web 2.0 term out there being used by many librarians: "blogorwiki". This term is often used when a librarian has heard of both blogs and wikis but is not sure which one they should be using in their library. Here's a (very) basic set of guidelines for helping to solve your problem when you hear yourself saying "blogorwiki":

• A blog is generally used to publish static content in reverse chronological order. You may have multiple people contributing this content and you may also allow for others to comment on this content, but generally said content does not change once it has been published.
• A wiki is generally used for creation and constant updating of many linked documents by many people. Wikis do keep copies of previous versions of documents since documents are expected to change.

I hope this helps to solve the "blogorwiki" problem. As always all constructive comments are appreciated.

IL2006: What's Hot in Social Softwr

Stephen M. Cohen, Senior Librarian, Law Library Management, Inc.

• AJAX
• Beta Browster
• CoComment Cohen Family Recipies (.blogspot.com)
• Digg
• Econsultant (Web 2.0 directory)
• flickr
• gmail (chat)
• "Hype"
• Image Editors
• resizr.lord-lance.com
• pxn8.com
• snipshot.com
• Jenny Levine
• LibraryThing
• (Babes with Books)
• Moo Meebo Media Convert Mojeek Muppets Wiki
• Netvibes
• OCLC
• Pandora Purevideo (Video metasearch)
• RSS
• Stephens, Michael Snapper Slideshare
• Trackback? Type of the Day
• utube.com
• Wikis
• YouTube
• Zoho

Others

• Gmail Space Firefox Extension
• Twingine
• Flock
• Gliffy
• i-am-bored.com?
• qumana.com
• last.fm
• citeulike.org
• Xanga
• Picasa
• Odeo

IL2006: Wikis in Libraries

Introduction to Wikis Nicole C. Engard

• What is a wiki
• editable website that doesn require HTML.
• records changes
• allows for reversion
• A colleciton of web pages
• wiki pages look like web pages
• anyone with a browser can read
• anyone with the proper permissions can edit
• collaborative spaces
• brainstorming
• draft policies
• share secratary responsibilities in a meeting
• empowers the user
• Wikipedia
• the free encyclopedia
• millions of articles
• why ise a wiki
• easy to learn
• easy to share knowledge
• easy to collaborate across borders
• ability to revert
• ability to track changes
• fosters collaboration
• Examples
• ALA Chicago Wiki
• mediawiki
• LISWiki
• Library Success wiki
• IL2006 wiki
• pbwiki
• Wiki software
• pbwiki
• hosted
• twiki
• jotspot
• socialtext.com
• list @ http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WikiEngines

Fostering Collaboration: Nicole's story of the Jenkins Intranet

• Jenkins Intranet Timeline
• 2001: Intranet 1.0
• 2005: Computers in Libraries & Startegic Plan
• 2006: Intranet 2.0!!
• Problems to solve
• no easy way to collaborate between departments
• poor navigation on old intranet
• important data locked in word docs
• centralized control of content with Web team
• Enter Intranet v2
• Totally written by Nicole
• Task centric orgainzation
• WYSIWYGPro (not free but discounted for non-profits)

Darren Chase: An Agreeable Wiki

• We had a woodpile
• scenario
• large staff
• diverse nowledge & expertise
• wide variety of projects
• communication is compartmentalized
• original intranet was a woodpile
• shared windowd folders on network drives
• woodpile: knew where the wood was but finding a specific piece was dificult
• our needs, desires and secret wished
• collaboration
• documentation/policies
• troubleshooting FAQs
• in-house control
• web accessible
• organization
• ease of use
• kaleidoscope of options
• keep the woodpile
• static HTML pages
• CMS
• blog
• wiki
• and the winner is...
• phpwiki
• dokuwiki
• kwiki
• wikiwikiweb
• mediawiki
• twiki (the winner)
• compare software @ wikimatrix.org
• Twiki
• easy editing
• access control
• file locking
• webs (multiple wikis)
• revision control
• plug-ins
• building Twiki
• linux
• apache
• perl 5.8
• perl modules (instead of SQL databases)
• plug-ins
• refreshing wiki
• implementation is done
• training and buy-in depends on staff support
• support builders
• make it easy to join & use
• keep it simple
• must be real world
• hands-on training
• continuing wiki refleshment
• fear, love, the fear of love, the love of fear
• [showed the live wiki]

Sorry, left at the break so I don't have notes from the other two presenters.

IL2006: Innovative Uses of Web 2.0 Technologies

Karen Coombs, University of Houston Jason Clark, Montana State University Karen: Incorporating Web 2.0 into Library Web Sites

• What is Web 2.0
• Services to collaborate & share
• movement toward more dynamic & interactice web
• examples
• social software
• blogs
• del.icio.is
• wikis
• folksonomies
• rss
• APIs
• AJAX
• Radical Decentralization
• Web site updated and created by many different people
• wikis & blogs
• librariy web site allows any staff to update any content
• Small Pieces Loosely Joined
• Combination of different technologies
• wikis
• blogs
• CMS
• Library's CMS made up of modules for different content types
• content is resuable throughout the site
• any piece of the CMS can be replaced as needed
• Perpetual Beta
• deploy systems early and make constant improvements
• users are part of the development process
• deploy new systems to a small group of staff to test and help us refine
• gather constant input and make continuous improvements
• Remixable Content
• APIs allow content to be incorporated into other systems
• library web site can incorporate content from external sources
• content which is part of the library's site can be used on multiple pages
• AJAX to add database link to any page, blog, wiki
• User as contributor
• allows users to add and update content
• class wikis
• wiki model for CMS
• instutitional repositories for scholarly content from faculty, students and staff
• library hosts blogs
• user tagging and review content in catalog
• Rich User Experience
• multimedia, interactivity, GUI-style application experience
• video
• sound
• screencasts
• personalization and customization
• space for collaboration and interaction
• chat
• VoIP
• Demo of UofH's CMS

Jason: Social Tagging and Folksonomies in Practice

• Agenda
• examples
• define
• suggest applications
• pros & cons
• where can you learn more
• Examples
• del.icio.is
• amazon
• flickr
• technorati
• Definitions
• Tagging
• assigning descriptive metadata
• Tag
• The descriptive metadata
• Folksonomies
• taxonomy created by folks
• Library use cases
• find additional access points in library catalogs
• assign friendly terms to indexes and databases
• create communities of practice around library articles
• organize a series of web pahes for a library guide
• give users opportunities to label library web pages
• Library applications
• tags.library.upenn.edu
• WPOPAC
• Social Tagging: Why does it work?
• embracessocal nature of the web
• curency
• scales to large datasets
• offers a broader discovery model
• adaptable
• maps and displays simple relationships between items
• What's the Hitch?
• lack of precision
• lack of true hierarchy
• vulnerable to "gaming" of the system
• lack of a controlled vocabulary
• users can be wrong
• When to use it?
• establish an architecture of participation
• organize resources for a company intranet
• allow a class to collaborate and buils a reference guide
• build and refine library controlled vocabulary
• anytime there is a browse or search function
• Reference list...
• ZoomCloud
• TagCloud
• tagsonomy.com (blog)
• FreeTag
• unalog
• Final thoughts
• design matters
• scale matters
• a new source of data

Muppet Wiki

Yes, everything you wanted to know about the muppets but were afraid to ask in a wiki.

via Library Stuff

How to keep users from subscribing to your feed

In my RSS workshop I explain to my students that there are multiple versions of RSS available for them to use, never mind that fact that there's also ATOM which everyone lumps in with RSS since it accomplishes the same exact thing but with a built in stylesheet. I make the case that you use ATOM if your blog is created with Blogger because that's what Blogger generates. If you're podcasting, use RSS 2.0 since it supports the required <enclosure> element. Beyond that, don't worry about which version the software you're using generates since it doesn't matter to the user as long as it's working. So, why of why, would a site offer multiple links to their feed and specify which language and version each link goes to?

Take the image in this post as a perfect example. I was surfing through the SciFi.com Tech blog and noticed that they offer four versions of their feed. One is ATOM, two are RSS (versions 1.0 and 2.0) and the fourth is "RSD" which, to be honest, I've never heard of before? (According to Wikipedia it's "Really Simple Discovery" which I've now read about and still don't understand. Anyone want to help me on this one?)

I subscribe to over 300 feeds, teach people how to use and create feeds, and wrote a book on the subject and I'm not sure which one I should choose... O.k. I generally default to the highest number available in situation such as these, therefore I'd choose the RSS 2.0 version, but I'll be damned if I could explain exactly why should someone ask me.

As it is there's a move afoot to stop using the terms RSS and ATOM when it comes to presenting this technology to users (look at IE7 and you'll see what I'm talking about, the word RSS doesn't appear anywhere,) and just stick to the term "feed". KISS: Keep It Simple Stupid. Take a look at your blog/site. Are you offering more than one version of the exact same feed? If so, I'd strongly suggest you think about getting rid of all but one of them. Your users will thank you.

Airport Parking Info Resource

AboutAirportParking.com gives you the scoop on cost, location (via Google Maps for you mashup fans), and distance from the airport. Here's the page for my home airport Denver International (DEN) Airport. The information provided is accurate but in this case incomplete. There's also the DIA Garage for $18/day and the "out in south nowhere" lots for only $5/day. I can't find a way to add/edit information. I sense the need to make this site a wiki...

Mozilla Firefox 2 Beta 1

Mozilla Firefox 2 Beta 1 has been released. I'm actively considering not installing it as I use many of my extensions daily and don't want to loose them. So, don't expect much from me on the beta in the immediate future. Here's the official list of new features:

• Built in Phishing Protection.
• Search suggestions now appear with search history in the search box for Google, Yahoo! and Answers.com
• Changes to tabbed browsing behavior
• Ability to re-open accidentally closed tabs
• Better support for previewing and subscribing to web feeds
• Inline spell checking in text boxes
• Search plugin manager for removing and re-ordering search engines
• New microsummaries feature for bookmarks
• Automatic restoration of your browsing session if there is a crash
• New combined and improved Add-Ons manager for extensions and themes
• New Windows installer based on Nullsoft Scriptable Install System
• Support for JavaScript 1.7
• Support for client-side session and persistent storage
• Extended search plugin format
• Updates to the extension system to provide enhanced security and to allow for easier localization of extensions
• Support for SVG text using svg:textPath

iread wiki

Michelle at the State Library of Iowa has started a reader's advisory named iread. It's just getting started so there's not a lot of content yet but she'll be using it some upcoming online workshops so it's a resource to keep your eye on. (Sorry, but it's not for public editing.)

Wikipedia teaches you how to do cool stuff

If this Wikipedia article doesn't prove its worth, nothing ever will.

Wiki Dissertation?

Douglas Rushkoff is thinking about turning his PhD dissertation into a Wiki and is looking for participants.

"The recent hubub about Wikipedia makes my thesis - that our current media are more biased towards collaboration than sole authorship - all the more relevant. I'm also trying to prove that the biases of our collaborative media extend to everything else we do, as well, from the creation of value to the creation of currency.

"That's why I'm wondering if there's a way to turn the dissertation, itself, into something of a collaborative project. A Wiki, if you will, where I take input from everyone who is interested, and offer full credit as well as whatever the 'gift economy' we're in allows.

"The dissertation thus *proves* itself by its very existence - and ends up challenging the values of the cultural institution underwriting its legitimacy."

I'm going to be watching this one and will definitely be considering participating.

Constitutional Wiki

Wikocracy is the U.S. Constitution as a Wiki. Don't like something? Change it. Got an idea for an amendment? Add it. Just to warn you though, amendments 28-64 are already there.

On a more serious note, my undergraduate minor is in criminal justice, and I took two semesters of constitutional Law as an undergrad. This is one of the most philosophically interesting Wikis I have ever seen. I'm going to be keeping my eye on this one to see how it develops.
Thanks Jenny!

Student Wiki Finds

I'm teaching my Wikis class again so it's time for another set of links found by my students...

Wikis

• Love to Know Dogs
• ANEWiki1
• fluwiki
• emacs Wiki
• WYLD Reports Training Wiki
• Yummy
• TeacherLibrarianWiki
• wikiHow
• Wikirecipies
• hydrogenaudio

Pro-Wiki Articles

• Wikipedia: The Know-It-All Web Site
• Wicked (Good) Wikis
• The Book Stops Here
• Working Together With Wikis
• How Wikis Are Changing Our View of the World
• Wiki-ocracy
• Wikis are Beautiful
• Winer on Wikis: Just add OPML
• Making the Case for a Wiki
• Are Wikis Worth the Time? Yes
• Enterprise customers make good use of wikis to combat e-mail overload
• Blogs, Wiki, Google Bomb Used to Free Egyptian Activist

Anti- (or at least not Pro-) Wiki Articles

• Not All Who Wander Are Lost
• 10 Things I Hate About Wikis
• Collaborative Conundrum: Do Wikis Have a Place in the Newsroom?
• The Wikification of Knowledge
• The Failure of Wikis
• What is a Wiki?
• Wikis test students' research skills
• Wiki: A Disaster Waiting to Happen
• A False Wikipedia 'biography'
• Wikipedia is a wonderful resource, but... (pdf)

Smoking DOPA

Here we go again... H.R. 5319: Deleting Online Predators Act of 2006 is meant to "amend the Communications Act of 1934 to require recipients of universal service support for schools and libraries to protect minors from commercial social networking websites and chat rooms." Yep, Rep. Michael Fitzpatrick [R-PA] and others feel that schools and libraries shouldn't allow kids access to blogs, MySpace, Friendster, wikis, and e-mail. Good grief!

The above link is to GovTrack which will allow you to receive bill updates via RSS. (Way cool!) There's also a wiki dedicated to this bill.
via Travels with the State Librarian

Creative wiki example

Funny Wiki
Originally uploaded by travelinlibrarian.

The final assignment of my online wikis class is to use one of the demonstrated wiki software pachages/services to create your own wiki on the topic of your choice. As you can guess, when teaching librarians, most of the results will be library related. Then there's the example shown here. This has got to be the most amusing and most creative examples of a wiki I've even seen. The author says she wasy "just being silly" but hopes to get the rest of her family involved. (I did get permission to post this and have blanked out the indetifying information. Also, the wiki is password protected so posting the URL wouldn't do any good.)

Found Wikis

I'm teaching my Wikis workshop online this week and the first assignment is to find one wiki, one pro-wiki article, and one anti-wiki article. Here's the results from my students. Wikis

• OblivioWiki
• LoveToKnow Crafts
• Library Instruction Wiki
• Current List of Possible Errors: The Harry Potter Wiki
• WiccanWeb
• Stargate Wiki
• Koha Developer Wiki
• WYLD Training Reports Wiki

Pro-wiki articles

• Wikipedia and Social Collaboration
• The Importance of Bad Content
• Misunderstanding Wikipedia
• Spreading Knowledge, The Wiki Way
• Making the Case for a Wiki
• Blogs & Wikis: Technologies for Enterprise Applications?
• Wikis are Beautiful
• Wikilust
• A Wiki for Your Thoughts

Anti-wiki & mixed-opinoin articles

• Britannica Rips Nature Magazine on Accuracy Study
• WhyWikiWorks
• Wikis Test Students' Research Skills
• Brent's Law of Wikis
• I hate wikis
• The Wikipedia Wars
• A Nightmare of Libel and Slander

A9 moves to Windows Live

I've been using A9 as my default search engine for more than a year now and I've been perfectly happy with the results. (Yes, I started using it because installing the toolbar gets me a small percentage off my Amazon.com purchases, but I've kept it because the results are good and it's flexible, letting me get results from the Web, flickr, and Wikipedia all at once.) This morning I noticed that it's no longer pulling results from the Google database, it's now pulling it's results from Windows Live which is still in beta. (But then again, what isn't these days?) I don't know how this will effect results but I'm going to keep an eye on it to see if there's any noticable differences.

UPDATE (later the same day): It turns out that not everyone has been switched to Windows Live. One of my co-workers still has Google as the default.

Firefox 2.0 alpha

As expected the Firefox 2.0 alpha release, named "Bon Echo Alpha 1 Milestone", is now available for downloading. I'm going to wait for someone to report on it's stability before installing it on any of my machines. There is also a Firefox 2 wiki for those wishing to track the project.

CIL2006: Information Literacy & Instruction

Kathleen Stacy, Instruction Librarian, Montgomery College
Chad Soeninger, Reference & Instruction Librarian, Ohio University 3:15-4:00pm

Kathleen: How Basic is Basic?

• Rosy future is... now
• working toward integrated infro literacy
• one-shot presentation is flawed but still the reality for many academic libraries
• Definition
• One shot
• a single presentation, usually less than an hour, to a college class
• conductd by a librarian at the request of a professor
• may or may not be tied into an assignment
• We can't cover everything
• too much information available to present
• have to choose carefully
• it's all about what you leave out
• Successful one shots
• clear objectives
• often overlooked
• task based
• trangible results
• tied to a task
• students walk away with something
• have to apply skills immediately
• include hands-on time
• a nod to short attention spans
• learn by doing
• time for individual questions
• time to accomplish the task
• what to include in presentation
• lots of how, some what, minimal why
• the smallest number of steps to perform the task
• get the students through a task successfully, then add the why
• What to leave out
• advanced features
• advanced searches
• boolean
• evaluation of resources and results
• personal information about instructor
• jargon
• The humble handout
• low tech but effective
• to take away, inplace of note taking
• first steps only
• contact info for more help
• 1 side, lots of white space
• Hands-on time
• need to actually try it, even briefly
• time needed to complete a task
• may be squandered

Chad: Wikis in the Classroom - Powerful Tools for Library Instruction

• Library instruction goals
• teach tools to accomplish a project
• teach research/information literacy concepts
• begin a relationship and dialogue between the librariarn and the students
• Library instruction challenges
• 50 minute class length
• 15-20 classes per quarter
• college of business has 1700 students
• penetration of library instruction in the curriculum is spotty
• I'm only one person
• More challenges
• instruction early in quarter may not be relevant later
• variety of projects means instruction must be scalable
• location of instruction may vary
• class requests may be spur of the moment
• Traditional research guides
• pathfinder
• popular method for disseminating library information
• rarely used
• limitations of research guides
• redundancy
• no interlinking
• multiple edits of the same content
• not searchable
• no way to measure use
• timely updates are difficult (yearly)
• What's a Wiki?
• editable Web site, by a community of users
• Wikipedia is best exmple
• srength of the resource is often dependent on the strength of the community
• The Biz Wiki
• www.library.ohiou.edu/subjects/bizwiki
• organized by topic
• interlinked
• editable
• scalable
• How to use the resource
• Teaching with a wiki
• wikis make excellent teaching tools
• replace class handouts
• examples
• doing business in another county
• industry research basics
• Biz Wiki content
• point to the best tools with "nugets" of information literacy concepts
• content can be a guide for general or more specific tpoics
• wikis support keyword to subject heading concepts
• Wikis are flexible
• learning raises more questions
• wikis offer the flexability to address questions when needed
• content is easy to edit/update
• new/updated content is available immediately
• Wikis are fast
• example: ref question via IM
• same question previously from e-mail
• turned e-mail answer into wiki article
• sent wiki page as IM answer
• Wiki build community
• frequent updates create dialog
• wikis have feedback mechanisms
• potential for building/strengthening community of researchers
• Why a wiki
• fast
• scalable
• can make librarian's job easier

ALA 2006 New Orleans Wiki

Meredith has done it again! Like last year's wiki for ALA Chicago and the current CIL2006 wiki, she now gives us the ALA 2006 New Orleans Wiki.

Library Staff Wiki

The folks at the Albany County Public Library in Wyoming have a staff wiki. "This is a web site to provide documentation to library staff on how to do things." According to the admin, "It's just a beginning. I work on this kind of stuff for our library when I have spare time, so it's kind of uneven." Uneven is fine at first. Every project of this nature has got to start somewhere.

Ring... "Hello, IT. Did you turn it off and on?"

Ever worked in an IT department? Know anyone who does? Just find "computer people" a little bit odd? If you answered yes to any of these questions you need to be watching the Brit-com The IT Crowd. As I understand it, the show is not being broadcast but being shown online in a DRM'd format available only in the UK. However, it seems to be poorly implemented DRM, and so far the first five episodes have been liberated and are available via Bittorrent. (If you don't know what Bittorrent is, check out the Wikipedia article. My client of choice is Azureus.) This show is just too damn funny to miss!

Searching For Wikis

Looking for a wiki on a particular topic? Check out Qwika which is a "search engine designed specifically to search wikis. Our aims are to cover all sizeable wikis in all sizeable languages, translate them, make them easily findable in the shortest possible time."

Computers in Libraries 2006

Yes, I will be attending CIL06 this year in Washington, DC (March 22-25). I'm ariving on Wednesday afternoon, attending the sessions on Thursday and Friday, presenting a post-conference workshop on Saturday morning and flying home Saturday evening. Here's the official description of my workshop:

Integrating RSS into Your Web Site
Saturday, 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Michael Sauers, Internet Trainer, BCR
RSS feeds are an excellent way to receive information from the Internet today. What many people don't know is that you can receive that information and easily repurpose and republish it on your Web site with little technical knowhow. Imagine automatically posting up-to-date local or industry headlines on your library’s home page. This is what you can do in just a few simple steps. Our expert Internet trainer shows you how to do just this.

I'll also be covering some RSS basics including using an aggregator and creating RSS feeds using free tools along with other more advanced topics such as FeedBurner and Feed2Podcast.

For more information on what the workshop will cover check out my del.icio.us account under the cil06 tag. (A special thanks to Michael Stephens for helping me wrap my head around the workshop's topic.)

If you'll be attending (or not) be sure to check out Meredith's conference wiki. I'm also assuming the the flickr tag will be CIL2006 since last year it was CIL2005.

pbwiki

If you're interested in finding a wiki you can experiment with that involves no cost or software installation be sure to check out pbwiki. Their list of NewFeatures is being updated on a weekly basis. (pbwiki is the one I recommend in my Intro to Wikis class.)

San antonio - Radical Reference Wiki

Some of the folks at the Barnard College Library have started a Wiki for ALA midwinter in San Antonio.

WebJunction Wiki

WebJunction has a wiki.

The Reference Librarians Guide to Mastering Internet Searching

I'm planning on being very open when it comes to this next book. To get started, if you're interested in seeing what sort of sites I'll be covering, check out the search tag in my del.icio.us account.

I'm also looking for a good place to start putting up my notes for the book so that folks can read and comment on them. Maybe a wiki. Maybe another blog. I'm just not sure yet. All suggestions are welcome.

As for the title, it's not final. Why? Well, the original plan was to do an update to my Using the Internet as a Reference Tool book but my head is starting to veer away from a direct update. With all of the new resources that are out there (podcasts, flickr, data visualization, video) I'm thinking that just updating the previous book isn't going to cut it.

Tagging Amazon.com

Take a look at the Amazon.com page for Amazon.com: Books: Observing the User Experience: A Practitioner's Guide to User Research. Scroll down and you'll find a "Concordance" of the "100 most used words" in the book. It's a tag cloud! Has anyone else seen books with this feature?
via Elegant Hack

IL05: Blogs & Wikis Face Off

Jenny Levine, The Shifted Librarian

Steven M. Cohen, PubSub Concepts, Inc.

• What happened today?
• http://stevenmcohen.pbwiki.com/WhatHappened
• Our wiki and blog didn’t work. Why? – http://internetlibrarian.pbwiki.com/ - http://openinternetlibrarian.blogspot.com/
• Is there a need?
• ITI blog and what makes it different
• Flickr and Technnrati worked
• Other wikis that work
• LibSuccess – www.libsuccess.org
• Unofficial ALA Wiki – http://metedith.wolfwater.com/wiki/
• Advantage: blog
• East to post
• Chronological order
• Automatic RSS feeds
• Comments to posts
• Only authors can edit the contents of a post
• Why might the blog work? Because it gives non-bloggers a place to post thoughts and it could be easy to audioblog.
• Why might a blog not work? Because bloggers already have a place to blog, and non-bloggers don’t want to blog.
• Advantage: Wiki
• Anyone, anywhere can contribute
• True equalized collaboration when accounts are not required
• Can create any order/flow to the information
• Why work: Anyone can connect @ conference or not
• Why not: Not sure what to add and where to add it.
• Advantage: Technorati
• Automatically brought together all posts from participating blogs if tagged
• It’s been a lot of fun
• Advantage: Flickr
• 105 photos in less than two days
• Mass tagging
• Human beings
• Ideas/comments from the audience
• Online tickler file
• FARQ: Frequently Asked Reference Questions (blog)
• RSS to email – RMail
• There is a module for MediaWiki that will output RSS feeds
• http://eSnips.com/
• Google announced web-based database service today [M: All your base belong to Google]
• Blog ownership content issues, what are they?
• What you write is yours
• Re-use
• Work product
• Trademark blog vs. Bloglines
• Creative Commons License
• “flickr owns your pics” – complaints – changed the language
• http://www.CiteULike.org/
• Scholarly version of del.icio.us
• www.connotea.org
• Powermarks - www.kaylon.com/power.html
• For-fee social bookmarking
• www.furl.net
• More powerful than del.icio.us
• But not social
• Library Thing

Writing assignments

A lot happened on the writing front today. I've been asked to contribute a chapter to a forthcoming book (tentatively titled A Day in the Life) about careers in LIS. I'll be writing about a "typical" day in my position. (This ought to be interesting...)

Later in the afternoon I was contacted by someone who's been helping me with The Collector's Guide to Dean Koontz (no, I don't know when it'll be out yet) requesting that I write the forward to his Dean Koontz Encyclopedia. Considering Tim Powers will be writing the introduction, I was honored and accepted the assignment immediately.

Also, WebJunction has agreed to publish two more articles of mine. One on cleaning up Quicktime and another on how to create Firefox search extensions. I'll post links as soon as they're available.

All your tank belongs to Denver*

The City of Denver wants a tank "just in case."
* This headline is explained on Wikipedia.

Should this man be our UN Ambassador?

This post from The Huffington Post contains a link to a video of John Bolton, the man George W. Bush has nominated to be our next Ambassador to the UN. Be afraid. Be very afraid. (More details can be found on Wikipedia.)

Moleskine Hacks

I love my Moleskine. Today I stumbled over a few hacks worth sharing.

• Moleskine/Hacks
• More Moleskine Hacks
• Amazon.com Wishlist Hack

IL04: Wither wiki

So Richard Akerman has followed-up on his own idea at the behest of Jane Dysart and created a Post Conference Wiki. I even see that Steven Cohen has already posted a comment and Jane's listed her blog. I'm thinking about it. But, here is comes, what's the point?

I'm not against Wikis. I talk about and promote them in my Intro to Knowledge Technologies class at DU. Why do I think librarians aren't big on them (other than the spam and destruction issues)? I'm trying to figure out how libraries can use a wiki in their mission to provide people with information. In other words, how would a wiki help a library get information to its users? At this point I think that librarians aren't into wikis because there's no solid practical application. (Internally maybe, but not for providing service to our patrons.) If someone can give me that practical application maybe librarians will start paying more attention to the technology.

To the moon alice

Going back to the moon by 2008 sounds like a great idea (which I doubt Bush came up with on his own,) but with record deficit spending, just how does he expect to pay for it?