Wikis

The wiki. I am familiar with wikipedia.org, and so familiar with most of the ways that wikis work, even though I have never made one myself. I watched the wikis in plain english video, and it didn't tell me anything new. Then I read the article "Using Wikis to Create Online Communities," which was okay. I visited a wiki linked out from there - libsuccess.org - which is supposed to be a wiki of different success stories and tips from an online community of librarians. It was quite a disappointment, though, since it is primarily links to other websites, and would be better served as a del.ici.ous account.
I like wikis. I think they are one of the better tools, and I like the idea from the article I read to add wikis to the online catalog to create a system of reviews and recommendations similar to Amazon's. I still think that amazon.com is the best source for book and music reviews and information and has the best search engine. Anyway the library can emulate it would be fantastic. I also think the IS Fugitive Facts wiki could be helpful, now that I know about it.
As far as other uses for wikis go, I think the camping trip example from the Common Craft Show was silly. Four friends who can't get together to plan a camping trip are ridiculous, especially since it takes the third person to remember that they will need a tent. Wikis would be more helpful to groups of people like community committees, which Ridgefield seems to have a dozen of. The committee for the centennial, which I am working on, could benefit from having a place to pool our history resources, for example. The impediment to practical use of this would, of course, be teaching people how to use it and a way to show them that it's there. Maybe that's something that the library should focus on right now.