Advantages+of+WIKI

I agree Terry - when editing others work - having a paper trail is important. For me personally, it makes me feel less paranoid as to what could be done with my words once I birth them and ship them out into the world. Thanks also for the articles.

Another advantage of wikis could be with team projects and papers. Everyone writing together can post their input, and the team can instantly edit. When everyone is in agreement with the final project it can be recopying into a word processor app for the final product. It beats sending word docs with tract changes to multiple people. Debbie

Compared with blogs, users in wikis can make changes. The community in wikis is the creator and owner of the content. When an entry changes, this change is recorded and the previous text is archived and creating what is called as an "electronic paper trail."

I may comment on this site to say that it is very interesting to communicate with my classmates instantly, and to exchange their ideas and comments.

Maybe due to the industry I work in, or the fact that I am responsible for the Quality aspect, the electronic paper trail element is especially important to me. To know who has done what, to be able to go and ask questions, follow up etc. is critical.

There is good paper giving an overview of wikis, entitled, "Wikis in the Workplace: How wikis can help manage knowledge in Library Reference Services." http://libres.curtin.edu.au/libres16n1/index.htm It was written in 2006 by a grad. student, and she gives a nice rationale about using wikis. She talks about how important it is to be able to capture the tacit information that librarians know through their many years of practice and experience. Wikis give an instantaneous voice to that knowledge, preserving it for those of us with less experience. There is so much knowledge about library services out there that can only be found out by having experience, and not everyone will write a book on the lessons to be learned from years of library experience but a wiki gives all that stored up information a place to be shared that doesn't entail a huge commitment of time Terri

http://www.wikieducator.org/Wikieducator_tutorial/What_is_a_wiki/Advantages_and_disadvantages Wikieducator has a page about some of the advantages and disadvantages of using wikis.