New (to me) Wikis

I like to use wikis for looking up what little stuff that I do not readily know <g> at work or in the rest of my life.

Here are three wikis I have added to my collection of wiki’s on my sidebar.

Citizendium: http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Main_Page
Scholarpedia: http://www.scholarpedia.org/
Veropedia: http://www.veropedia.org/

Try them out and let me know what you think.

Learning 2.0 Project — Numbers 16 and 17 of 23ish Things — Wiki’s

I *HEART* wiki’s.

I have created a couple of wiki’s for work and have really found them one of the “killer apps” of the Web 2.0 world.  The ability to collaborate on a document is almost mind blowing.    Also, I have participated in conference wiki’s, library best practices wiki’s, and blogging wiki’s.   You can see some of my favorite wiki’s under my Wiki Wiki links on my blog’s sidebar.

Don’t know what a WIKI is?   Just watch Common Craft’s Wiki’s in Plain English video and prepare to be amazed.

PC Magazine’s “Readers Digest” Web

The PC reporting gray beard PC Magazine has compiled two lists worth looking at. First, is their Top 100 “Classic” website list, with the usual web suspects of ESPN, Google and the like. I have to say some of their “classic” sites are very web 2.0 specific and very useful.

They have also just released an article highlighting 100 Undiscovered Websites. I am going to brag and say that I was ahead of their curve, since I use some of these things already, but I also found some very wickedly cool sites via this list.

A great primer for the web as it is and as it could be. And you can import all 100 of each article’s sites into your browser. If you join PC Magazine, which takes about 15 seconds. 2 cool for words.

ALA 2007 — Open Source Systems Interest Group Report

At heart, I am a geek, but a human geek. I did not make it to the LITA Open Source Systems Interest Group on Monday at ALA.To say the least, I was disappointed but sometimes you are in the right place talking to the right person at the right time. Julian Clark was there, ended up in the LITA Sponsored Blogger Grotto, and shared with me his notes on the meeting. Big thanks Julian. Good luck in Library School!

So, I dressed up and linked his notes and here is the report.

by Julian Clark
Serials Assistant
Georgetown University Law Library
Unofficial Chronicles Correspondent and all around good guy

LITA Open Source Systems Interest Group

Resources:

Drupal — Open Source Content Management and Site Development software

LITA Wiki
(Library Information and Technology Association, a division of the American Library Association)

LITA Open Source Systems Interest Group (OSSIG)

You can sign up for the OSSIG discussion list at (ossig@listserv.arizona.edu )
Don’t know about listservs? Click here for Tidewater Community College’s student Listserv instructions.

Software Freedom Law Center — Lawyers for OS and Freeware developers.

Evergreen – Open Source (FREE) Intergrated Library System (website) (blog where the good stuff seems to be!)

Extensible Catalog (XC)

Ubuntu A complete open source system

Zotero ( a Firefox “a truly wonderful open source browser’ extension) -Grabs citation information right from the electronic source.

“We’re not married to open source; we’re just dating.” Great quote by someone at the meeting.

More content after the jump…

MD State Staff Development Coordinators Meeting

Today, in beautiful the beautiful Maryland City at Russett branch of Anne Arundel County Public Library, it seems that every county and regional library system is represented here with either the system’s trainers or training decision makers in the room.

Nini Beegan, DLDS Statewide Online Learning Coordinator <this title does not do justice to how much she does> highlighted DLDS projects and interests, including Ning, Synchronous Online Learning, Learning Libraries, Moodle and MERLIN among other projects.

We learned about the Learning Libraries 3.0 training initiative from Gail Griffith, Deputy Director of Carroll County (MD) Library. More information about this is here at the MAPLA website and they are using a wiki to create the training materials. The first LL3 workshop will take place in Frostburg, MD in September. Libraries are not bound by the geographic list of suggested systems and trainings. We saw a Camtasia presentation about the LL3 Project Wiki.

There were also other presentations on blended learning, SirsiDynix Webminars, and Online Supervisory Training but no pictures. ( I will one day invent a wireless power source!!)

Very informative meeting so far.

Blogging At ALA

I plan to take my trusty laptop and Axim with me to Washington DC in June for the 2007 American Library Association Annual Conference. This year’s conference also has a wiki- ALA Conference Wiki. Check it out.

I hope to see some of you there. Look for an almost bald, dark and ruggedly handsome gentleman at the convention.

There is also a list of other people blogging at ALA this year.

PB Wiki

I just set up a couple of wiki’s for easy access to information and collaboration for work.

I used a tool called PB Wiki for our wiki, and I am really liking its easy page building interface.  It takes mere seconds to have a quikiewiki going.

The CIL2007 wiki is on PB Wiki.

So far, so fun.

CIL2007 — Learning with Blogs and Wikis

Great presentation on using blogs and wikis for real world learning on an international scale.

They emphasized keeping wiki product open to all. Also the shared learner collaboration.

Also tips on using blogs to document professional development.

http://michellemeredith.pbwiki.com

CIL2007 — Core Comps to Learning 2.0 –Charlotte Mecklenberg Library

This presentation is by Helene Blowers of Charlotte & Mecklenberg Co. NC describes how they went from four core comps to a learning 2.0 program for their entire staff.

Did it work as a “Learning 2.0 is a weapon of mass instruction?” Well, out of a total staff compliment of 540, they had 342 participate (with many coming onboard after the program started!, with 226 staff members completing the program and recieving a MP3 player as a completion gift.

Her presentation is here
www.librarybytes.com

Hilighted Best Practices for a 2.0 project:
1) Encourage and Motivate Staff
2) Allow for late starters
3) Design for late bloomers on staff
4) Communicate via e-mail and sometimes paper.
5) It’s about just using the tool
6) Practice transparency and encourage radical trust
7)Encourage play

WOW!!! Web 2.0 is sharing….

Live from Tuesday’s CIL 2007 Keynote – Convergence of Old and New Media

Andy Carvin, NPR is discussing the convergence of New and Old media.

This presentation was a great day starter especially the piece about larger media such as NPR (National Public Radio), CNN (Cable News Network) and USA Today, embracing the WeWeb/Web 2.0 culture by intergrating those norms of socializing, news gathering and delivery into their websites.

• NPR.org features web exclusive shows, podcasts, and mobile content.
• USA Today.com has been relaunched along the model of a social networking/personal tag site.
• CNN uses YouTube video norms for their I-Exchange.

His presentation is on his website www.andycarvin.comHis slides are here www.andycarvin.com/complibraries.ppt

Blog entry dressed up on May 4th, 2007.

CIL2007 – Wikis + Media Specialists = Community

Internet at Schools East is a conference within the Computers and Libraries Cconference. The content is geared toward k-12 grade librarians and media specialists and this year they are focusing on “Web 2.0 and the Internet World.” Since I am helping to organize a couple of 2.0 activities, I decided to attend a couple of the sessions.

The first presenter Judy Hauser, Information Media Consultant from Michigan discussed how she used wiki technology to foster collaboration among school media specialists throughout the state.

By introducing wiki technology to a buy-in group of advisers, she was able to create a sense of ownership of the wikis which encouraged statewide sharing of curriculum consideration for different levels of secondary education. While creating the wiki’s they were able to use the flexibility of wiki’s to add new standards and curriculum elements to the wikis.

She used a site called Seedwiki to create the wiki’s. You can see the resulting documents by going to Seedwiki and searching for “remc17″ You will see all 36 wiki’s she created for the project. She likes seedwiki because there are no ads. Another participant said that she uses Wikispaces to host her wikis, and if you say you are an educational institution, they will remove the ads from your wikis.

She also used a wiki for the Michigan Media Specialists Annual Conference. She piloted it in 2006 and has made some adjustments from experience. The advantage of a wiki is that it can be updated by the community and is instantly up to date. This year’s cconference wiki is here. For this wiki she used PeanutButterWiki.

I have her PowerPoint slides if anyone is interested…leave me a comment.

CIL2007 — Call me crazy. Or inspired. Doesn’t matter.

There I was sitting at the Computers in Libraries Conference just outside of DC and I started to play with my handheld organizer. It with the wireless capabilities. And me without my wireless laptop. And I thought this would be a great way to try a couple of technologies at once.

So, I am going to try to blog the conference with my handheld, so I don’t miss fresh thoughts, while learning about how to use wordpress to blog and the handheld’s wireless browser functions. Wish me luck tomorrow.

All this in preparation for Harford County’s Learning 2.0 project and Technology Fair set to kick off in June 2007. I am co-chair of the committee putting this together for Harford County and also one of the trainers preparing and helping to “leverage” the program in my system.

Our library system is working in conjunction with our state library agency on a Maryland Libraries Learning 2.0 project.

Whew.