Jon said:
>Wikis seem to me to work well with closely linked professional groups in an intranet/extranet
>situation where there's shared collective understanding of the editorial context/critical regime
>etc. Where they don't seem to work well - apart from the shining example of Wikipedia - is when
>they're used in general public situations where there's sometimes little understanding of collective >publishing behaviours - ie what you can do, what you can't, and what you'll get flamed for...
Now that we're onto the less technical details, I feel I can join the discussion a bit more. I think there is scope for Wikis to work better in general pulic situations. I think the Science Museum Object Wiki is one of the examples where it's worked better. What is crucial, however, is that you have an audience to populate it who you know in advance are a) knowledgeable about the subject matter b) interested in contributing and sharing their knowledge and c) IT-literate and confident enough to do so. With very specific topics/interests, it can be hard to find a critical mass of contributors who fit into all three categories.
I feel that it's worth museums experimenting a bit more with this kind of engagement before we write it off too quickly.
One point that I think is worth stressing is that wikis work best when they are created to provide a means of genuine collaboration and co-authoring. This is, after all, what Ward Cunningham envisaged when he first thought of them. If what you are after is an experiment with gathering information from your audiences, then it is worth considering other methods as already mentioned.
Apologies to Linda if this discussion has gone completely off-tack from your original post!
Have a great weekend everyone!
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Looseley
e-Learning Officer (Web), Access & Learning
Museum of London
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London. EC2Y 5HN
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-----Original Message-----
From: Museums Computer Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jon Pratty
Sent: 05 December 2008 11:23
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Wikis
Mike's got the right point here
I don't think it's creeping out onto thin ice to question whether wiki is the right way to go. In the course of my current Social Networking research project working with Linda Spurdle and Renaissance West Midlands, I'm finding there's an oft-mentioned need within regional museum or heritage places/space for some sort of collaborative space, tools or just web presence.
It could be that this boils down to a more fundamental set of needs around simple cms solutions like customised Wordpress sites, basic level off the peg wikis and so on. Or, indeed, if there's little or no skills base in the region (not the case in the West Midlands!) it could be that much cruder social networking systems like Facebook groups would do the trick.
Wikis seem to me to work well with closely linked professional groups in an intranet/extranet situation where there's shared collective understanding of the editorial context/critical regime etc. Where they don't seem to work well - apart from the shining example of Wikipedia - is when they're used in general public situations where there's sometimes little understanding of collective publishing behaviours - ie what you can do, what you can't, and what you'll get flamed for...
Jon
Jon Pratty
Digital publishing consultant, culture sector
Journalism: arts, technology and society
[log in to unmask]
http://machineculture.wordpress.com
Terrestrial: 01273 277396
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-----Original Message-----
From: Museums Computer Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Mike Ellis
Sent: 05 December 2008 10:52
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Wikis
I'm in danger of heading out onto thin ice here, but powerful though MediaWiki is, it is far (FAR) from being easy to either set up or edit. As soon as you have a requirement for authors to write in CamelCase you've immediately lost maybe 80% of your potential editing audience to geek-types.
And yes, I know you can implement a rich-text editor, but that isn't easy either...
I obviously second what Frankie and Mia have said - way more important is whether this is the right tool...
Mike Ellis
Professional Services Group
Eduserv
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tel: 01225 470522
mob: 07017 031522
fax: 01225 474301
www.eduserv.org.uk
-----Original Message-----
From: Museums Computer Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Frankie Roberto
Sent: 05 December 2008 10:18
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Wikis
Linda wrote:
Can anyone tell me where and how I can set up my own wiki?
Will I have to pay? Is it easy to do?
Well, *cough*, as the co-author of a paper on museums and wikis to be presented at mw2009 (http://www.frankieroberto.com/weblog/1346), I can give you a few ideas. As with other types of web software like blogging platforms, you have the option of going for a 'hosted' service, or installing it on your own server. The former is probably a bit easier to set up, but may come at a cost and/or adverts on the website. The latter gives you full control, but requires a bit of fiddling.
There's a huge number of different wiki programs (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wiki_software for a list, or if you like big tables see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_wiki_software),
but they vary hugely in terms of features and community support (online tutorials, forums, plugins and so on).
The market leader is MediaWiki <http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki>,
which used and published by the foundation behind Wikipedia. It's not the simplest of the lot, but has a huge amount of community support, and the similarity with Wikipedia can be an advantage in and of itself.
Far more important than which software to use though is what you're going to use it for, and how you frame the interaction. Do you have an existing on or offline community you want to use it with? Or is it meant as a way of interacting with the general public?
Cheers,
Frankie
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