When you hear people talking about Wikipedia you get one of two responses...they either LOVE it or HATE it, there doesn't seem to be an inbetween. I have to say that before I did this weeks exercise I was firmly in the hate category. It just seems to open and unreliable to be used as an information source. Even after doing this weeks work, I have to say I'm still not going to be rushing to use Wikipedia as an information source, however I will not rule it out completely. As with everything you need to gather your info from a varitey of sources (yes it's been firmy drummed into me over the years!).
There are some great wiki's out there that are great fun to look at and play with and such a wide variety of information available...and the different uses for wiki's? Well I must admit that I hadn't really taken the time to play around with them to see what they could do before. Most of the stuff I've looked at before have been basic almost encyclopedia entries. But looking at the different uses for both information and gaming (yes I've even looked up some of the wiki's for my favourite games!) I've been really impressed.
I've come to the conclusion that for some things wiki's are fantastic! ie. games like WoW and RPG's where multiple people need to have input and have the ability to add to what's already there...for some things this is just invaluable because the workload of keeping a website up to date and current is heavy and in some cases fatal! Many a good website has fallen by the wayside because of the time and skills needed to keep the site current, if these sites had had access to wiki's then they could probably have still been around now.
As for using Wiki's in our library? Well I don't see it happening any time soon. But possibly one day in the far distant future we could use it for organising meetings for our writer's groups or different activities that are happening around the library. Or maybe even for our policies and procedures that are passed on either verbally or via little notes that are passed around (how many times have you typed up a procedure, especially for something new, and printed it out and stuck it in strategic places around the library?)
But for me the big thing is security and being able to trust what you find. Remember not everyone is internet savy enough to be continually double checking whatever they find or to look for the little tells on a website that show that they might not be so trust worthy. How often when you are looking for information do you read all the "small" print on a site? Yes Wiki's have a disclaimer (sometimes at the top of the page) saying to verify all information, but realistically how many people actually take the time to look for more information when they think they have found what they are looking for on their first stop at a wiki?
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