Thing 10 - Wikis

I think wikis are a great way to collaborate on a project and an easy way to make a website. They also would be a better more flexible way to maintain standard operating procedures type document for a library. It would be easy to update and has the option of sending emails out when it has been changed, to keep staff informed.

I think wikipedia is interesting information and a good starting point for information but that information should be verified. One good reason for this is what one of our summer interns told us their knowledge bowl team did. During the part of the competition that allows for research on the internet, the first thing they do is plant false information on wikipedia to try and trick other teams into answering wrong!

I edited the 23 things on a stick wiki. I built a new page about Hibbing and added a list of all the current pages to the sidebar.

I do already maintain a pbwiki for the National Church Library Association listing book reviews. However, that site tends to be rather fickle when I am updating information so I plan to look at the Zoho wiki a little more to see if that one is easier to edit. http://nclareviews.pbwiki.com/

Thing 9 - Online Collaboration Tools

Welcome to Zoho Writer

Your Word Processor on the Web

This is a test for how well Zoho Writer works. I have used Open Office but this is really convenient to have a web based word processing software available with your documents any where you have internet access. a great way to back up data that does not require a secure environment.

The information above is text from my Zoho writer document. I also created a zoho wiki at:

http://chrismag08.wiki.zoho.com/

These are great tools to use when working as a team on a project. Especially if it is something system wide where all the team members are not located in one building.

The online storage of documents with Google and Zoho would also be great for staff that rotate between buildings or work from home - if the data is not private. I don't know how comfortable I would feel about storing files about staff or patrons online like this.