(almost) Bald Trainer Blog aka:

Taping “T is for Training” in the Tower room

June 15, 2009 · Leave a Comment

This is a shot of us taping an episode of T is for Training at the Princeton Public Library during Pres4Lib this past Friday.

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Presentation for Libraries aka Pres4Lib conference

June 12, 2009 · 1 Comment


So, no conference for trainers that you can afford to attend and focused on libraries?

Why create one!

That is the spirit of the Pres4Lib conference happening tomorrow in a couple of hours at the Princeton Public Library and oraganized by a 4 pack of great folks from New Jersey.

If you want to follow the conference live via the intertubes you can look at the live streams listed on the pres4lib streaming page.

I hope you can follow the proceedings and join us in virtual spirit and in person next year.

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A Tool for Tough Times: Library Savings Calculator

June 8, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Many of the best things about the world wide web are things that are given away for the sake of making the world a better place.

Things such as the Library Savings Calculator. Here is the sample of how it works.  Your library’s customers can send you dollars and sense examples of how much value they get from your library.

In these difficult incredibly stressful times for libraries trying to justify their Return On Investment (ROI) to their communities, there is this great and FREE tool for libraries to use to justify their value to their community.

They usually charge for services to libraries receiving over 1 million in funding but it looks like they are giving this tool away!

THANK YOU to Engaged Patrons for providing this service free to all libraries.

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Maryland Library Association Conference 2009

May 14, 2009 · Leave a Comment

In a few hours, I will be presenting two items in a Pecka Kucha format for the Maryland Library Association conference in Ocean City MD.

The presentations are up on slideshare.

If you want to see what I see at the conference, I will be tweeting about it at http://twitter.com/confbaldgeek

I hope all of my fellow presenters have great presenations tomorrow.

Now off to bed.

Night all.

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I know I don’t speak like this….A Japanese to Ebonics phrasebook

May 8, 2009 · Leave a Comment

offdahook

The world wide web has moved us closer yet there are some cavernous holes in wisdom out there.

Witness:

Blog post about Off The Hook:  Dictionary of African American Slang. Since the author found the book in England, I wondered if I could find it at Amazon.

Lookie what I found:  Available at Amazon.   Look for only $14.98.  What a bargain.

Wonderful.  Just Wonderful.

What can I say.  Seems as if I have talked the wrong way all of my 42 years here.

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Read. Think. React. Share. The Darien Statements on the Library and Librarians

April 3, 2009 · Leave a Comment

This morning a small working group of forward thinking librarians, came up with a statement about the future of the Library and librarians.  Since that moment it has torn up the librarian blogosphere/twitterverse/friendfeed/delicious world.

With good reason.

It is eloquent, brilliant timely and succinct. A grand slam.  Bravo. It is also CC licensed so feel free to share.

The Darien Statements on the Library and Librarians

Written and endorsed by John Blyberg, Kathryn Greenhill, and Cindi Trainor

The Purpose of the Library

The purpose of the Library is to preserve the integrity of civilization.

The Library has a moral obligation to adhere to its purpose despite social, economic, environmental, or political influences.  The purpose of the Library will never change.

The Library is infinite in its capacity to contain, connect and disseminate knowledge; librarians are human and ephemeral, therefore we must work together to ensure the Library’s permanence.

Individual libraries serve the mission of their parent institution or governing body, but the purpose of the Library overrides that mission when the two come into conflict.

Why we do things will not change, but how we do them will.

A clear understanding of the Library’s purpose, its role, and the role of librarians is essential to the preservation of the Library.

The Role of the Library

The Library:

•    Provides the opportunity for personal enlightenment.
•    Encourages the love of learning.
•    Empowers people to fulfill their civic duty.
•    Facilitates human connections.
•    Preserves and provides materials.
•    Expands capacity for creative expression.
•    Inspires and perpetuates hope.

The Role of Librarians

Librarians:

•    Are stewards of the Library.
•    Connect people with accurate information.
•    Assist people in the creation of their human and information networks.
•    Select, organize and facilitate creation of content.
•    Protect access to content and preserve freedom of information and expression.
•    Anticipate, identify and meet the needs of the Library’s community.

The Preservation of the Library

Our methods need to rapidly change to address the profound impact of information technology on the nature of human connection and the transmission and consumption of knowledge.
If the Library is to fulfill its purpose in the future, librarians must commit to a culture of continuous operational change, accept risk and uncertainty as key properties of the profession, and uphold service to the user as our most valuable directive.

As librarians, we must:

•    Promote openness, kindness, and transparency among libraries and users.
•    Eliminate barriers to cooperation between the Library and any person, institution, or entity within or outside the Library.
•    Choose wisely what to stop doing.
•    Preserve and foster the connections between users and the Library.
•    Harness distributed expertise to serve the needs of the local and global community.
•    Help individuals to learn and to use new tools to create a more robust path to knowledge.
•    Engage in activism on behalf of the Library if its integrity is externally threatened.
•    Endorse procedures only if they guide librarians or users to excellence.
•    Identify and implement the most humane and efficient methods, tools, standards and practices.
•    Adopt technology that keeps data open and free, abandon technology that does not.
•    Be willing and have the expertise to make frequent radical changes.
•    Hire the best people and let them do their job; remove staff who cannot or will not.
•    Trust each other and trust the users.

We have faith that the citizens of our communities will continue to fulfill their civic responsibility by preserving the Library.

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CIL2009 Fill Post Previewette

April 2, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Yes, there will be more blog posts about CIL 2009.

About the incredibly rich formal learning.

About the truly sublime informal learning and knowledge sharing that happened.  Mostly during the lobbycon/tablecon/carpetcon sessions.

About the renewed strength of my personal “worldwideweb”.

About the increased knowledge that is my conference takeaway.

About meeting friends by saying “Don’t I know you from the Internet?” Then bonding with same.

About bragging about my friends giving fantastic presentations all over the conference. And wishing that I could have cloned myself to be at everyone. Thank goodness for slideshare.  If I know you and you presented, yes I am talking about you!

About being lucky to attend such a great conference. Thanks to MPOW Harford County Public Library.  A rockin’ library even in these tough times.

About being able to produce a LIVE version of the T is for Training Podcast!

If you can’t wait for the full report, just go to my conference twitter feed at http://twitter.com/confbaldgeek to see my 337 or so updates from the conference, which made the tagcloud for the conference. I hear that Internet Librarian is much the same but with many Left Coasters for a different prospective.  I would like to go but may need sponsoring help. <g>.

So look in this space in the next few days for better reports from CIL2K9.

TTFN

baldgeekinmd

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Special T is for Training 6:30 pm

March 31, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Tonight at 6:30 pm we will be doing a special CIL Live edition of T is for Training

If you are here, come on by the conference center over flow room…the theater looking thing between Potomac and the Ballroom.

If not..There is a new live widget. Ask us questions. Comment on the show. Say Hi.

Thanks to Library Thing and Information Today for providing space and a microphone.

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Day the First: CIL 2009

March 31, 2009 · Leave a Comment

The first day and the previous day here at Computers In Libraries has been great. The wireless, while not perfect, is a marked improvement from last year.  The two session presenters were engaging.  The resource sharing and networking were as usual fantastic.

This year I am tweeting the sessions attended and will write fully annotated posts later this week.

To follow me daily here at CIL:  follow @confbaldgeek  on twitter for all of my tweets from the sessions.

In addition, today (Tuesday) we are going to do a live podcast of the show T is for Training

More tomorrow.

Good night from downtown Alexandria.

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CIL Here I Come!

March 25, 2009 · Leave a Comment

cil2009_200

I am now able to attend the sublime Computers in Libraries Conference held just outside of DC this coming Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

I will be blogging about the conference, attending many sessions, meeting a bunch of my T is for Training cohorts f2f for the first time, and renewing other friendships admit tons of good presentations.

Subscribe to my blog, if you have not already, and follow me on that new hot service called Twitter.

I have created a special account just for conference posts and insights.

Follow the user confbaldgeek to keep up with my activites at the conference.

See you on the interwebs.

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I’m A Shover and Maker. Check it out!

March 24, 2009 · 1 Comment

Shovers and Makers 2009: I’m a winner! (So are you.) shoversandmakers.net

I’m a LSW Shover and Mover and so are you.

This my profile.

Check out the inspirational cast of Shovers and Makers.

They rock my socks off.

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Congrats to the 2009 Movers and Shakers

March 16, 2009 · 5 Comments

Each year Library Journal publishes a list of those library world staff members recognized for moving the world of libraries forward.

You can see the official gallery here at Library Journal.

A heartfelt congratulations to all of the winners.  You all do the library profession proud by the work that you do every day.

On a personal note, I am honored to claim several of the 2009 M and S’s as web and real life colleagues.  Lori Reed, (a T is for Training regular,)  Sarah Houghton-JanJenica P. Rogers-Urbanek, Michael Porter and Lauren Pressley are all aces in my book.

Next week, the Library Society of the World’s Shovers and Movers award winners will be revealed.

Bobbi Newman (future M&S winner, IMHO) publishes a blog post linking to all of the resources of the winners. You can find that here at her blog Librarian By Day.

Again my congratulations to all of the winners.

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My Tweeps (aka People who follow me on twitter)

March 12, 2009 · Leave a Comment

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A Temporary? Farewell to a Friend

February 24, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Greg Schwartz of the Uncontrolled Vocabulary podcast has decided to put the show on a priority readjusting hiatus.   He is truly doing the right thing by focusing on his family and hearth.  I think that the title of the last (for now show) A Startlingly Poor Grasp of Basic Economics serves as a tribute to the quality and honesty of discussion often featured on the podcast.  His show was the right open fourm at the right time of national library professional social networking.

While it is a sad day for those of us fellow podcasters,  I suggest that you give a listen to some of the shows.   Just about every week, UnVocab focused on a smorgasbord of topics directly related to libraries, library science, knowledge and information management, censorship via a very freewheeling discussion with from a wide sampling of library professionals.

I will speak for myself when I say that without Uncontrolled Vocabulary, there would be no T is for Training and that would stink.

So, thank you Greg for giving the library community your time and skill.  I wish you luck reshaping your prioroites and taking care of your family.  I raise a freshly made margarita in honor of your choice.

I also hope that those UV shirts don’t become relics and that the show comes back in some form in the near future.

Come back soon, Greg.

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Politics Quiz

February 20, 2009 · 2 Comments

Seems like I am a “left social libertarian. Left: 6.72, Libertarian: 4.08″

Yep.  I am shocked, shocked I say.

My Political Views
I am a left social libertarian
Left: 6.72, Libertarian: 4.08

Political Spectrum Quiz

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What I don’t like about Word.

January 16, 2009 · 2 Comments

Too much “gosh darn” code.

Example:

I copied the phrase “South Jersey Regional Library System” from a Word 03 document to a blog post for T is for Training. It had no special formatting.

This is what it had to copy to put this phrase in my blog post:

<!–[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:PunctuationKerning /> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas /> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables /> <w:SnapToGridInCell /> <w:WrapTextWithPunct /> <w:UseAsianBreakRules /> <w:DontGrowAutofit /> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]–><!–[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState=”false” LatentStyleCount=”156″> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]–><!–[if !mso]><object  classid=”clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D” id=ieooui></object> <style>
st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) }
</style> <![endif]–> &lt;!–  /* Style Definitions */  p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal     {mso-style-parent:”";     margin:0in;     margin-bottom:.0001pt;     mso-pagination:widow-orphan;     font-size:12.0pt;     font-family:”Times New Roman”;     mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”;} span.normalcomment     {mso-style-name:normalcomment;} @page Section1     {size:8.5in 11.0in;     margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in;     mso-header-margin:.5in;     mso-footer-margin:.5in;     mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1     {page:Section1;} –&gt; <!–[if gte mso 10]> <style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:”Table Normal”;
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-parent:”";
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:”Times New Roman”;
mso-ansi-language:#0400;
mso-fareast-language:#0400;
mso-bidi-language:#0400;}
</style> <![endif]–><span class=”normalcomment”><span style=”font-size: 12pt; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;”>

ACK!

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My Favorite Posts By Month — NavelGazing 2008 Part 2

December 31, 2008 · 1 Comment

(Subs were great.  It is a yearly tradition at HCPL that  my director throw for staff who happen to work on New Year’s Eve.)

As we come to the time of year rife with looking back and looking forward I want to thank all of you for following me, reading my blog, following my friendfeed, looking at my pictures, and following my exploits as the training flyboy in the buttermilk.

So, I give to you my favorite posts of each month of this year from this blog.  Part One is here.

And now for more of 2008.

May 2008: How Twitter Made My Life Better.
Yes, I called out Comcast on Twitter. Yes, I got a response from Comcast and now I have the comcast Triple Play for less than I was paying Comcast and Verizon for Phone, Cable and Internet.  And as soon as Verizon brings FIOS to Harf. Co.  I am so there.   Unless Comcast comes through with a better offer.

June 2008: I <3 Mouseprint
I love this site, which proves after all these years that I was not crazy about the corporate food package shrinkage that has been happening for years.   Now I follow this site for the latest things I will not be purchasing.

July 2008: FriendFeed and I are now, well friends.
2008 Killer Social App of the year. QED.  I was shocked that I have only been using FriendFeed since July.  I cannot imagine my day without it.

August 2008:
How I Found My Way to Libraries? Glad you asked;
Extreme Bathroom Makeover Mrs.baldgeekinmd style;

Introducing T is for Training podcast
.
These three posts are a part of another busy month and serve as a past, present and future of my year.   And I cannot say enough how much I love doing the T is for Training podcast. (next show on Friday Jan 2, 2009) I keep hoping it helps a few fellow trainers out and helps them not feel alone in the training woods.

September 2008:
How/Why I got Into Blogging?
The Chron got Blog Dayed..
Two posts relating to blogging (which I still love to do in fits and starts and when appropriate.) It is nice to know people actually read this thing.

October 2008:
Rutabee and Road Work: My Minnesota Training Adventure;
Starter Observations from the Learning 2008 conference.
These two posts sum up my main work and me for the majority of the month.  It also signaled a shift in how I blog conferences and events.  I used flickr for pictures from Minnesota and beyond, used my new IPod Touch.(squeeee!) to twitter and blog Learning 2008 and experienced the truly cold weather in Orlando that week.  38 degrees cold.  Also I proudly drove (mostly by myself) almost 1000 miles in 9 days in Minnesota.

November 2008: On Open Letter about election 2k8
Most. Historic. Election. Ever.

December 2008: MLA 2k9 Presentation: A Pecha Kucha about 2.0h
Looking ahead to next year’s Maryland Library Association Pecha Kucha presentation with a bunch of virtual/f2f friends.

Thanks for reading and I hope to do even better next year.

bald.

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My Favorite Posts By Month — NavelGazing 2008 Part 1

December 31, 2008 · Leave a Comment

As we come to the time of year rife with looking back and looking forward I want to thank all of you for following me, reading my blog, following my friendfeed, looking at my pictures, and following my exploits as the training flyboy in the buttermilk.

So, I give to you my favorite posts of each month of this year from this blog.

January 2008: Sports Break — NY Football Giants in the Big Game
I was right about this, except I gave both teams 10 extra points in a completely thrilling Super Bowl. And this time the (dec 08) the Giants are back as the favorites.  Nice.

February 2008: Damn only three posts?!  Not wasting your time.

March 2008: Now You Can Tweet Me…
Who knew that this would become the gateway app to this year’s killer ap for me Friendfeed.  I now use twitter as occasional updater, billboard, advertising platform for my lifestreaming and blogging.  I don’t use it as much for direct microblogging as I did previously.  It is the killer app for me for conferences.  I can use my IPod Touch to tweet the conference, create quotes and generally not have to carry the big honkin ‘laptop around with me all day.

April 2008:
CIL2008 Day the First A review;
CIL2008 My Day Two in Review;
CIL2008 Day Three In Review;
CIL2008 Gaming: Gimme’ Shelter;
Pardon the Navelgazing: Happy 1st Blogbirthday to the Chronicles

Quite a banner month on the blog and in my professional life.  CIL 2008 dominated the posts *as it should as the “best conference ever for 2008″ awarded to it by yours truly earlier this year.*   Needless to day that I loved the conference for a pile of reasons.  Three unreported small moments that stick out for me.  I sat next to Karen Schnider in a meeting;and got a hug from Chadwick Seagraves in the hallway and connected with my fellow MD trainers over lunch and dinner.    Yep, the personal moments improving the value of the conference.  Also, the conference had so much information, that I had to create a separate Island of lost posts to post the leftovers from the conference.
(BTW: anyone want to sponsore my attending CIL 2009 this year?   We can talk easy terms. )

Part Two forthcoming.  Now time for our library New Year’s Eve Lunch.   Subs..mmmm..

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2008 I(o)LP – April 2008 Library Staff Training

December 30, 2008 · Leave a Comment

Now that we are at the end of the traditional western calendar year, I am looking back at some posts that were not quite ready for prime time.  I hope they interest you and provide some enlightenment and entertainment these last days of 2008 and first of 2009.

From (April 2008) CIL My Unedited but newly half organized Live Blogging Notes of this workshop at Computers in Libraries 2008: Session D105 – Library Staff Training Donovan’s  PPT’s are here and Rebecca’s are here. Another good session I attened at CIL.  (I do so want to go back in 2009)

Library Staff Training with Donovan Deakin of Web Junction and Rebecca Ranalio Kahl, Internet and Media Services Manager Cuyahoga County Public Library. Donovan is on the left, went first and talked about electronic web based learning. Rebecca presented a case study of her system.

Donovan asks the audience a question: How do you like your coffee? There are many ways to order coffee in Seattle and there are that many ways libraries are implementing staff training.

Some trends in library training noticed by WebJunction include: Increased interest and adpotion of online learning and dissatisifaction of responding systems with their own existing online learning programs.

Commonly recognized barriers to learning (the you are not alone portion of the show):
Staff time or lack thereof, No expertise or access to content, lack of funding/travel for conference or training attendance ; and technology using it and access to it.

Online learning adpotion by libraries is pretty good. A majority offer surveyed offer online learing today or will in the next two years. WJ noticed a trend in how systems were using online training: Larger budget systems tended to go toward the Synchronous/Live Electronic class model and both large and smaller budget systems use asynchronous/self-directed learning.

Blended learning is being adopted and adapted by systems. Using different elements of traditional and newer learning models.

Tech content in staff traning: Information technology, networking, desktop management, computer applications and tools, Web 2.0 Technologies and reacihing out and engaging staff and service community.

Noticed Impact/ROI of training
: Morale and job satisifcation, attendance and evaluation of training, job perfomrance ratings and improved library sevice.

Summary of findings: training content design needs to fit existing schedules; training budgets static and projected to increase, online learning adoption is slow but will grow and there is a growing awareness for web20 technologies.

(Ed note: this section contains pure live blogging notes from this session.)

Next to speak was Rebecca Ranallo Kahl, Internet & Media Services Manager, Cuyahoga County Public Library (68 million dollar budget, over 1000 staff with 663 in SEIU, 106 managers and confidental clerical staff.)  It is one of the 10 busiest libraries in country and is the county that surrounds Cleveland Ohio with 28 branches.  She gave a nutshell presentation about her system’s training now and where they are going in the future.

Training situation now: Launched new intranet with cms (content management system) running both public and staff sides; staff becoming more comfortable adding information to public side by adding content to intranet; blended learning workshops to teach new cms (Content Management System) content creation. House interanet was very static.  Systems used contracted training and workshops. have many resources out there. anbd are using nancy peral an dlookin g for mgmt training
Elearning tutorials online
increased blended learning options
increased 20 visibility
more hands on and some staff practice and play.
trying to get staff to see and use connections

work on interactive modules for working on strategic plan using 2.0 tools
another project
second like training project with stff to get used to developing content for staff in anticipation of getting computers that can handle second life.
another project
cuyahoga conversations interactive converastion space with subject specialsit community news and interests. We host and they manage the conversation. Her staff is excited about comments on this space and comments on catalog.
revamping orientation center.
online modules for intellectual freedom, corporate culture, customer service, marketing, diversity. putting together already created content with new content for a FULL Week.

Outcomes
6 mo 2 year
deliberate traning plans
compentecny based new management expections.
more working sessions
responsiblity for leraning
more ondemand opprotunities.
Would like to move intermediate traing to real works exercises in their training.

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2008 I(o)LP– April 2008 Wikis: Managing, etc.

December 30, 2008 · 1 Comment

Now that we are at the end of the traditional western calendar year, I am looking back at some posts that were not quite ready for prime time.  I hope they interest you and provide some enlightenment and entertainment these last days of 2008 and first of 2009.  Looking back, this was a really good session, I should have posted back in April.  Now, I fell guilty.  Dang.  Well — here it is.

April 2008: CIL Session named Wikis: Managing, Marketing, & Making Them Work Some formalized notes some of the post contains just notes.

Chad Boeninger (His Blog) Reference and instructional librarian at Ohio University Libraries spoke about wikis and how to manage, market and using them. His BizWiki is here. This is a summary of his presentation. As soon as I find it, I will place a link to it here on this post.

He created this presentation because a number of librarians asked him how to make wikis work for them. He used wiki technology as a collaborative tool to communicate with users while putting together as subject guides across a network.

First, a caveat, remember to define a purpose or problem to figure out if you do need a wiki or are their other tools that may work better for you.

Why did Ohio use a wiki? The library had a network drive which developed different knowledge silos on their network drive. Staff wiki helps keep information in one place. If someone leaves, their knowledge is not kept in their silo

They use their bizinfo wiki as a public subject guide. This met their need to keep their information accessible and organized even though expert staff were not there or still at the library.

How do you choose which software to use for your wiki?

The site wikimatrix.org offers free assistance to compare wiki farms and software to see which one best meets your needs. Categories, better organization

Locally hosted Options

What is required?: Experience, Desire to experiment, Ready to get your hands dirty customizing the look and feel, Data lives on YOUR server.

Wiki Farms and Services

Why use a wiki farm?: for new users, they are nice, require little technical knowledge and when they upgrade, your wiki upgrade. Also a good place to start.

What did they use in Ohio?

They ended up hosting their wiki using mediawiki for all of their wikis. This allowed them to keep a consistent look throughout their wiki’s. They also went with mediawiki because if anyone knows how to use wikipedia, they would be able to navigate their wiki.

So, now that they choose a tool, how did they structure the wiki?

Well, this is the hard part. Provide struction and content so your users can find things quickly on the wiki.

After you structure your wiki , you will probably need to encourage folks to change it. You have to essentially say “Ok here is stuff, you go edit this now.”

No one will know what to do with your wiki if you don’t have a purpose or have some content. Feel free to steal your ideas from others. The wikiIndex is a great resource to find various wikis. He encourages you to check them out and steal the way they are organized.

What do I put on first?

Content:

Just start with the old content cut and pasted onto site;
Seek input from users for additional content and layout;
Provide Help Page on your Wiki…..a wiki text help page;
Provide more help via a screencast to help folks do basic things on your wiki;
Add content yourself: Try to think of what to add and when to add it to your wiki;
Use your wiki to communicate information and create a knowledge base.
Encourage others to add content;
Let others add content.
Don’t get feelings hurt and don’t demand perfection! Its ok if it does not look perfect.
Force staff to add content to wiki.
Have buy in from higher up bosses to direct staff to add to wiki.
Provide even more help. There is never too much help offer in person and to give immediate help.

How to promote your wiki?

Teach off of wiki. Use the collected knowledge during presentations.
Add desirable content — What resources do your users need?
List open desk hours on the wiki.

Your wiki MUST be flexible. MUST BE FLEXIBLE
you should be too
have realistic expectation for use
dont be surpised if users use the wiki otehr than intended
users may use it, but may not contributge.

How easy is it to add content? Add content on the fly to your wiki.

Kernels not corn…instant response to information requests.

On the FLY CONTENT from email to content on wiki in 30 minutes
CREATE ARTICLES TO ADD list to wiki.

Here a wiki, there a wiki. Should you system collect a wiki? or have individual Create google custom serach for diparate wikis.

WHEN IS A WIKI DONE….It is never done…always growing and changing. A static wiki defeats the purpose of the wiki. Maintian links create new pages, edit old ones to unsure viablity of wiki
How do you know it is still alive

Lesson learned Reasonable expectations of users, use. they may not think it is as cool as you do.

IS A WIKI FOR YOU
Flexible
can be adapted to meet your needs
Wikis save time
require contributions and edits.

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