Week 13, Thing 22: Wikis

The end is nigh - hang on in there!!

We're all familiar with Wikipedia and the notion of a wiki as a website written and edited by a community.
But aren't wikis a bit 'old-hat' now? All very 2005/2006. Take a look at all the articles and talks about wikis listed on the professional development library wiki Library Success; they all date from 2005-2007. Facet Publishing have even got around to publishing a dead-tree book about library wikis.
We've got Twitter and blogs now. Aren't they the Web 2.0 tools of choice?

I think that in many ways, blogging software has replaced wikis - it's more intuitive, easier to set up and customise. But wikis can still be a useful way of storing documents that are linked in linear and non-linear ways and in enabling collaboration.

• Wikis are really great for managing project documentation. I worked on a 4-year digitisation project which generated a lot of reports, minutes of meetings, plans and timetables. The project wiki was a great repository for all that information, enabling all members of the team, on both sides of the Atlantic, to read, edit and upload all this material at a glance. Documents could easily be shuffled around and archived. A wiki discussion was much more easily retrieved and organised than an email thread.
  
• Staff Intranet Several university libraries use wiki software to manage their staff intranet. Take a look at the University of Minnesota or the University of Connecticut. The wiki operates as a content management system, combining both publicly available and restricted access documents.
• Staff Manual If you want to produce a document with multiple sections that you'd like staff to be able to edit or comment on, with those changes being tracked, a wiki might be the answer.
• Subject guides Have a look at this example from Ohio University. It's fine but a basic list of links like this is probably easier to put together with blogging software. Chad Boeninger from Ohio University set up a popular BizWiki guide to business-related info in 2006 and has now replaced it with a Business Blog. Take a look at both and see for yourself which is the most user-friendly.
  

Wikis used to be touted as interactive spaces for collaboration between library staff and users but they're pretty unsatisfactory for that. As Chad notes, he had high hopes that users would get involved and contribute content to his wiki but nobody ever did - he only had to deal with spam. There are of course issues involved in allowing open editing of a wiki. In general, users are much more likely to add a comment to a blogpost or perhaps offer a guest post than they are to edit a wiki page. It's perhaps easier to see how teachers might use wikis collaboratively, where students are obliged to contribute.

Wikis are still a great medium for archiving and publishing large quantities of documents, no matter how you obtained them.

But for the final word in deciding between blogs and wikis, what better than a presidential debate??

Week 8, Extra Thing: tumblr and posterous

Blogophobia: fear of blogs and blogging.

Her blogophobia was a kind of online stage fright: what if someone actually READ what she had to say?

I used Urban Dictionary to self-diagnose this last year during 23 Things. It all started when I tried to make my post on RSS feeds interesting. After staring at Blogger's blank, white, empty content box for a full four and a half minutes I couldn't even summon a vaguely witty title. Fear struck! My palms began to sweat. Just when I was about to file myself under a rock and die of librarian blog-related shame I remembered that it doesn't have to be this way.

tumblr- for truly fearless blogging

  by  tess_marie 

I feel that whereas Blogger and Wordpress demand words with menaces from me, tumblr has a lighter, more cajoling touch. It handles posts consisting of mainly images, video, quotations or audio as easily as text, and subtly adjusts the parameters to suit.

The drafting area is simple, uncluttered and encourages you to write naturally, but the biggest thing about tumblr is that it isn't about the big posts- it's about documenting things as they come. Don't get me wrong, I've written some detailed posts on there, but it is so quick and easy to post that I find myself more inclined to share my snapshot view of the web wherever and whenever I can.

tumblr is often described as blogging lite, or halfway between a tweet and a post. Although these definitions only tell part of the story, they do highlight the immediacy of tumblr.You can set up your blog with minimal faff- the only hold up is coming up with a suitably trendy name! A range of tools and extras means that you can send your posts by email, clip them from the web and even telephone them in (should you wish). Innovative and easy ways to post are also available for smartphones.

Where the wild things are?

tumblr does have a reputation as being the home of the hipsters and Harry Potter obsessives, but it is also a genuinely creative space. Users can choose from over a 1000 themes, customise the CSS or create from scratch, this freedom and flexibility is great for experimenting with bits of code, and there are scores of helpful people who can teach you neat tricks with javascript, JSON and other scary words.

What really sets tumblr apart is the social dimension, as well as actively creating your blog you can follow others receiving updates straight to your dashboard. Not quite a Facebook or a twitter feed, this has a true community feel as you are encouraged to reblog (a bit like retweeting) each other's posts. Some big players have also joined in the fun, taking the opportunity to share quickly and efficiently- The New York Times and the Washington Post host their respective style sections here, and the New Yorker's tumblr looks enviably good.

Librarians on tumblr

Join the growing librarian community on tumblr, including our very own Annie, have some fun and mix it up with Cambridge Noir exploring the fictional dark side of town and the truly bizarre experience that is Garfield minus Garfield.

posterous at Judge Business School

  by  dolphinsdock

Our posterous was set up in minutes one afternoon in May, it was intended to support a course in New Media aimed at a small group of research students. I had two requirements: first to act as a paperless handout detailing all the tools we planned to showcase, secondly I needed to host video content and key links to be accessed during teaching. Despite our advertising only running to "key cjbsinfo posterous into Google" we reached almost 200 views in the two weeks following the course.

Subtly social

An unexpected strength of posterous is how adaptable it is to group work. At set up you can choose whether to opt for a completely private blog (ideal for family or group newsletters) which acts as an email list with extra knobs, bells and whistles, or a public blog, but whatever you choose it's easy to add extra authors at any stage. This and the ease with which you can import a blog is where posterous has the edge over tumblr. I set up a group tumblr for my bookclub and found it disappointingly faffy.

The final results aren't as impressive as tumblr, but there are people out there using it for educational purposes- try BBC Earth or Scott McLeod's Mind Dump, and if I was setting up a group blog it would be my first choice.

Extra Credit

Comparing Tumblr and Posterous- 40tech

Tumblr: An Introduction Guide For Microblogging – Part1-1WD.CO

HOW TO: Get Started on Posterous- Mashable

Week 1, Extra Thing: Ways to make your blog beautiful

You have just created your first blog.  Congratulations!  It is likely, though, that you are not completely satisfied with how it looks.  You might wonder how to make it look interesting and professional, like some of the more established library blogs.

Do not worry, you do not need great coding or design skill to make a nice-looking blog.  Blogger (and Wordpress) offers many templates and gadgets/widgets that add sparkle to your blog and extend its functionality -- and most are easy to install and configure (and free!).

Quick definitions: A template controls the layout, colors, and overall look and feel of your blog.  In Wordpress, these are called themes.  A gadget (or widget) is a snippet of code that you can copy and add to your blog and which adds functionality to your blog, such as a feed from your Twitter account, a connection to your Facebook account, or slideshow of your photographs.  There are literally thousands of themes and widgets to choose from.

To change your template on Blogger, follow these instructions.  If you would like to customise your template, you can use the template designer.

There are also many third-party Blogger templates to choose from.  A Google search for 'blogger templates' yields many sites with many interesting designs.  It is important to choose a template that reflects your personality and goals.

To add a pre-loaded gadget to Blogger, click 'Design' and then the 'Page Elements' tab.  Any place you see the link 'Add a Gadget' you can click to add one of 24 gadgets Blogger provides by default.  Some of these gadgets include a search bar, a 'follow me by email' feature, and an easy way to add an image.

For lists of other great widgets, a Google search for 'blogger widgets' yields many great sites.  If you find a widget you would like to add, copy the given code snippet, go back to your blog and 'Add a Gadget' (instructions above).  Select 'HTML/JavaScript,' paste the code snippet, and save.  Your new widget/gadget should appear on your blog.

Have fun exploring the many ways you can improve the look and functionality of your blog.  Change your template at least one time and add at least two widgets.  You will be surprised at how easy it is!

Week 1, Thing 2: Creating a Blog

Welcome to Week 1, Thing 2!

After completing Thing 2...
You will have a shiny new blog to use throughout the programme to record your progress. You will also have begun to think about how you want to present yourself online via your blog and what makes for a good blog.

What is blogging and is it relevant to libraries?
Check out the Wikipedia entry on blogging for a perfectly acceptable definition and brief history, then come back here. There are numerous blogs and bloggers within the field of librarianship. Many librarians pen individual blogs which they use to reflect on their professional experiences and to offer their opinions on the library world, while many libraries on the other hand maintain organisational blogs in order to promote services and enhance communication with their users. There are of course also many blogs written by people participating in 23 Things programmes at other institutions.

Blogging during 23 Things
Blogging is a key element of the 23 Things experience which we'd like all participants to engage with. Every time you complete a Thing we ask that you blog about it. Your blog posts should aim to constructively evaluate each Thing, giving an indication of what you liked (or didn't like) about it. They should also offer the reader an ongoing flavour of your experience of the programme. It's worth mentioning that any blogs which contain posts which say little more than 'Done Thing 3' will not be eligible for completion as that is neither entering into the spirit of the programme nor the purpose of blogging. 

Blog platforms
We have chosen to give instructions on creating a blog on the Blogger platform as its very quick and simple to get going on, however, you may choose to use the other main free blog provider WordPress instead. If you already have a blog, there's no requirement to create a new one for 23 Things. 

Blogger: step-by-step instructions
1. Go to http://www.blogger.com/ and sign in with your Google account username and password. This will bring you to a Sign up for Blogger screen. Some of the information may already be filled in for you (depending on what you told Google when you signed up for your account) but you will need to choose a display name and to accept the Blogger terms of service.

2. You now need to create your blog by clicking on the blue Create Your Blog Now button and choosing a name and a web address (URL) for your blog. The address has to be unique so your first choice may not be available.

3. Now choose your preferred layout template for your blog. You can change this at any point for a different one.

4. Congratulations, your blog exists! 

Your first post
You now need to create your first blog post.

1. Click on the orange arrow that says start blogging (if you have logged out and are returning, then click on new post by your blog's name on your dashboard - the screen you see when you log in). This will bring you to the posting screen.

2. Enter a title for the post, and then type your text into the box. There is a toolbar at the top of the box which will allow you to format your text and add links and images.

3. Write something here about what you hope to get out of Cam 23 and your previous experience of Web 2.0 and social media.

4. When you have finished writing the post, type Thing 2 in the Labels box under the text box. You will need to tag all your posts with the number of the Thing being blogged about and any other descriptive words you want to use to help you find the post later on (just as we librarians add subject headings to catalogue records in order to help users retrieve books).

5. Click the orange Publish Post button at the bottom of the screen, and your first post will go live. 

Any problems?
If you got lost at all at any point above, I can recommend this Blogger tutorial (from YouTube). 

Register your blog
You will need to register your blog it so that it can be added to the list of Cam 23 bloggers on the lefthand menu of the Cam 23 blog. All you need to do is visit this URL and fill in the details. 

Reminder
Remember, you are required to blog about each Thing on your blog in order to complete the programme. Your blog needs to record your progress through the whole programme so you need to take a bit of time now to write a post about what you thought of Things 1 and 2.

Add tags
Don't forget to add tags (Blogger calls them Labels) to your post - Thing 1, Thing 2, iGoogle etc. 

Get social
Blogging is much more fun and interactive if you receive comments on your posts, so now you need to visit a few Cam 23 blogs and comment away. You may have to wait for more blogs to appear on the left-hand Cam 23 blog list before you can go visiting - it really depends how speedy you are compared to everyone else. If someone leaves you a comment from a blog that you have not yet viewed then go and visit it and comment back. Cam 23 is not just about learning about how new technologies work but also about using them to network and share.