Ahh wikis. Containing within them a plethora of information, some useful, some completely inane. The most popular wiki is Wikipedia, the world's largest encyclopedia. Anybody, anywhere, can add information to or create an article on any given topic. Part of what makes a wiki so user friendly is that it doesn't require users to be knowledgeable about HTML. On the other hand,public ones don't require them to be knowledgeable about the content they are adding to either. Which makes Wikipedia, and public sites like it, a great source for information but unreliable at face value. So you have to be careful in deciding which wikis to use to gather information from.
An internal wiki, however, is a great resource for companies to share and collect information from its employees. In a library setting, it could be used to brainstorm ideas, plan and coordinate events, even implement training programs. Every employee can voice a thought, an opinion, and get feedback from their colleagues.
After looking at three different wikis (Wikia, WetPaint and PBwiki) I have to say I preferred the set up of Wikia. It was very user friendly, and was like an EBSCOHost of wikis. I could enter a search time for a certain subject and it would come back with the most relevant sites. It also gave suggested wiki links, which a person might not have thought to look for, but found interesting anyways.
The WetPaint site seemed altogether too cluttered for my liking. It was also not as easy to navigate. When I entered search terms, it didn't always come back with the relevant topic. Instead, it just seemed to give me any site that had those words found anywhere within it. Which meant instead of getting wikis on that topic specifically, I was getting sites that made a one line, off hand reference to the topic.
And finally PBwiki. Which had a nice layout overall, and easy navigability as well. But it was limited to only Business and Education information. Helpful for somebody in those fields, or for somebody needing information about them, but not relevant to general searching. I liked Wikia best, but PBwiki is a close second.
Overall, I enjoy using wikis. Especially fan run ones, like Memory Alpha, a Star Trek wiki. Most of the time when I'm using a site like Wikipedia I take the information with a grain of salt, and search for other sites that will confirm the information is correct. But with a fan run site for something as prolific as Star Trek, you're almost guaranteed the information will be correct. If a rabid fan saw something that was incorrect, it would be immediately fixed, and the wrong-doer most likely chastised for getting it wrong in the first place. But for anything important, like a medical condition or your Masters thesis, a wiki might no be the best place to get information from.
We still love you, wikis. Live long and prosper :)
Friday, 28 October 2011
Friday, 14 October 2011
Oh So Simple
This week's blog covers RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds. An RSS feed allows for you to subscribe to a web site and get information and updates delivered to you. This allows you to scan the information more easily by just giving you brief summaries, so you don't have to go through so much information to find what it is you were looking for or are interested in.
A lot of sites use RSS feeds, and not just official sites, like ones for the government or the local newspaper. Many fan sites also use them, such as FanFiction. Net, allowing you to subscribe to a feed of your favourite fandoms. In order to read the feeds, you need an aggregator. Some web browsers allow you to read the feeds online. You can also purchase software that might give you more options than just a browser.
Before this blog, I had never used RSS feeds before, and wasn't really sure what they were for. Now that I have a better understanding of them, I think that they can be extremely useful tools. The feeds that I am following (found to the right -->) are all from the Library of Congress, and follow not just the general news from the institution, but more specific feeds. Such as the one for Collections Preservation, or Library of Congress: Web Archiving. I think this shows just how useful an RSS feed can be for a library.
The general news gives you an idea of what's happening at the library in general, such as events, closures, etc., and can target a very wide audience. Whereas a more specific feed might target a smaller,more select audience. In this age of information and "web surfing" however, a person might easily be looking for just general news, and notice a different, interesting looking feed. They subscribe to and find out that, hey, there's some really cool stuff out there. So then they go back and look for more feeds, until it snowballs into following multiple feeds and maybe getting their friends. family and coworkers to follow some of them as well.
It's like subscribing to three different newspapers, but only getting the comics and sports sections from each one. People don't want to waste their time sifting through information they aren't interested in, and an RSS feed allows them faster access to more relevant data. Which is really helpful for a library, a place where people come looking for information and expect to have it at their fingertips.
I'm looking forward to going out on a search for more feeds to follow.
A lot of sites use RSS feeds, and not just official sites, like ones for the government or the local newspaper. Many fan sites also use them, such as FanFiction. Net, allowing you to subscribe to a feed of your favourite fandoms. In order to read the feeds, you need an aggregator. Some web browsers allow you to read the feeds online. You can also purchase software that might give you more options than just a browser.
Before this blog, I had never used RSS feeds before, and wasn't really sure what they were for. Now that I have a better understanding of them, I think that they can be extremely useful tools. The feeds that I am following (found to the right -->) are all from the Library of Congress, and follow not just the general news from the institution, but more specific feeds. Such as the one for Collections Preservation, or Library of Congress: Web Archiving. I think this shows just how useful an RSS feed can be for a library.
The general news gives you an idea of what's happening at the library in general, such as events, closures, etc., and can target a very wide audience. Whereas a more specific feed might target a smaller,more select audience. In this age of information and "web surfing" however, a person might easily be looking for just general news, and notice a different, interesting looking feed. They subscribe to and find out that, hey, there's some really cool stuff out there. So then they go back and look for more feeds, until it snowballs into following multiple feeds and maybe getting their friends. family and coworkers to follow some of them as well.
It's like subscribing to three different newspapers, but only getting the comics and sports sections from each one. People don't want to waste their time sifting through information they aren't interested in, and an RSS feed allows them faster access to more relevant data. Which is really helpful for a library, a place where people come looking for information and expect to have it at their fingertips.
I'm looking forward to going out on a search for more feeds to follow.
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