I read Corey’s post on the use of wikis in team environments and was writing up a comment when I realised I’d gone off topic. So, I snipped the last bit from the comment and decided to develop it further here…
I was thinking today about how blogs could be used to manage other kinds of information than the traditional chronological journal type of writings.
An organisation could use it to manage feedback forms from people attending training or professional development. A post template could be constructed with each of the fields that need to be completed. The attendee could then fill in the details - their name would be recorded as the poster - and adjust the post time settings to the date/time of the training they attended. Categories could be used to track similar types of events “workshop, seminar, conference”, training providers and topics.
If posts were searchable that would be the icing on the cake. This is really just exploiting the database nature of blogs, and it could be extended to a heap of other types of forms/information that need to be archived and searched.
So what else can blogs be used for?
Blog masquerading as an e-book - The Castle of Otranto - Blogger
Blog masquerading as a product review site - Chaitgear - Wordpress
Blog masquerading as a coupon site - Percent Savings - Wordpress
Blog masquerading as a church website - St. John’s Episcopal Church - Wordpress
Blog masquerading as a dictionary - Money Terms - Wordpress
Blog masquerading as an e-magazine - Boxes and Arrows - Movable Type
……………………….as a business website - Adaptive Path - Movable Type
……………………….as recipe catalogue - shoebox of recipes - Wordpress
Food for thought there (excuse the pun on that last entry). Wordpress and Movable Type appear to have a wealth of features adequate for many simple websites. Any library websites out there managed in a blog? or links to other creative uses of blog.
Photograph by A@lbi (CC licence)
P.S. How could I forget to mention blog masquerading as a PowerPoint presentation — Staying ahead of your patrons with weblogs and rss by Steven Cohen — Blogger?
July 26th, 2006
Posted by
Peta Hopkins | Blogging, Blogs |
7 comments
Here at the RUBRIC project we have a wiki that we make available to all of our project partners and board members. So what exactly is a wiki? The definition provided by the Wikipedia, the worlds largest and best known wiki, states:
A wiki … is a type of website that allows users to easily add, remove, or otherwise edit and change most available content, sometimes without the need for registration. This ease of interaction and operation makes a wiki an effective tool for collaborative writing.
The wiki that we use is part of the project management software that we use. Unlike most wikis ours does require registration because it is designed to be used by only the RUBRIC project. One of the more well known wikis in the Library sector is the Library and Information Science Wiki, or LISWiki for short.
We have found that the wiki provides a very valuable space for us to collaboratively work on documents and information. One of the most heavily used sections of the wiki is the area where we have been collaborating with our project partners on questions related to the evaluation of the institutional repository software conducted as part of the project.
We have other areas where we have uploaded documentation, information about our servers, contact details of everyone involved in the project, and other collaborative areas.
Because there is typically no formal structure imposed on a wiki they do have a tendency to grow very quickly and it can be difficult to find the information contained within them. Ensuring that pages are linked together wisely and with descriptive names this type of problem can be alleviated.
One problem that we have particularly found with the wiki is that pages can become very long and very complicated, very quickly. This has typically happened where the page has been used to discuss issues and work through problems. A small project is currently under way to tidy up these pages and create a series of FAQ style pages instead.
I believe that wiki’s are indeed useful in a team environment. With the appropriate monitoring and use they can become a very valuable resource. If you were considering a wiki I would encourage you to experiment and see how it goes. They’re not suited to every situation, but they are indeed useful.
July 26th, 2006
Posted by
techxplorer | Australia, Queensland, Academic libraries, New technologies, Special projects, Wikis |
10 comments
ALIA is just getting underway with regional meetings for their National Advisory Congress with meetings across the country. The first was in Alice Springs last week, with Brisbane tomorrow, and the rest are planning to meet during August. I recall going to the Sydney one last year at which a dozen or so folk attended and found it useful for catching up with colleagues and getting a feel for what was happening with ALIA. The National meeting will be held in conjunction with the ALIA conference, click06, on 19 September.
July 26th, 2006
Posted by
snail | Click06, Australia, Meetings, All sectors, ALIA |
no comments
I love the sense of community that blogs can create. It’s brainstorming - internet style, really, with all the value that we get from the brainstorming process, as well as that personal (yuk hate the word) bonding.
I’ve found a corollary of this process… where the brainstorming happens in person and then the results are shared on the web. Normally, isolated pockets of people get together and share ideas and the synergy develops and the excitement builds as the whole becomes far greater than the sum of the parts and individuals are boosted - and then the whole thing disappears, evaporates from the world (although of course a few will transfer the energy out into their networks.) But if the results of a session like this are shared on the web, then the whole community benefits.
And this is just by preamble to a huge appreciation of the Pre Book Week Extravangaza team who shared their ideas on the internet. Thank you so much. From all those Teacher-Librarians particularly who are harried and hurried, and in the midst of it all, lose any creativity, and who now have the inspiration of the ideas of those people who got together and shared theirs.
Thank you.
July 26th, 2006
Posted by
Bronwyn | Public libraries, School libraries, Useful resources, Blogging |
no comments
Went and had a browse in the Perth Borders shop last week. When the shop first opened some weeks ago, it seemed like a Very Big Deal and for the first couple of weeks at least, it was always packed. I guess the novelty’s worn off a bit now, because the super large crowds have dissipated.
There were still quite a few people in the shop when I was there, though. I saw the odd child sprawled on the floor, reading, people sitting near the graphic novels section reading graphic novels from cover to cover, other people perusing the extensive magazine selection, and generally quite a few people around the shop reading things in various other sections.
Someone (not a librarian) I was chatting to about the shop the other day said that it was ‘friendly’ and ‘welcoming’ and she liked it because she felt she could take her time browsing there. It was ‘just like a library, except without the photocopiers’, she added. (I’m not sure whether the comment about the library was just added on for my benefit…)
On the ACRL (Association of College and Research Libraries) blog Barbara Fister points to an article in the New York Times which remarks on the fact that Borders “is losing money rather faster than expected” because people are not buying as much as the company would like them to. Citing a 1905 speech, Barbara remarks that libraries have always recognised the fact that our users appreciate having a pleasant and “hospitable book-lined social space” to visit, pick up a book or two, and meet with others. Attracting new users will always be challenging for libraries, though!
No matter how friendly Borders (or any other shop) is, ultimately they are not there to just be friendly to their customers - they are there to make a sale. And what will they do, when potential customers are more interested in spending time there, and not money? Send these non-customers to a library?
The picture is from Flickr, posted by its creator under a Creative Commons license. Click on the picture itself to read more about the context it was taken in, or to find out more about the photographer.
July 26th, 2006
Posted by
CW | All sectors |
4 comments
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