Wikis

I am of two minds about Wikis. The good is the information is easily accessible. Of all the quick informational resources on the web wikis are the best. If you don’t know anything about a topic I take a look at Wikipedia to get the lay of the land.

But are you getting reliable information? The bad is that in most cases you’re not sure about reliability and authority. One simplistic amendment can take an article from factual to arguable to unusable.

I don’t subscribe to never using Wikis as many academicians do. I would say that if you find information in a Wiki you have to investigate the source(s) and verify with other reliable information. This may be more than most users are willing to do.

As for practical uses, I see Wikis as a great collaborative tool. If you don’t have or want to use document sharing software or work with emails and attachments the Wiki can be great way to get several colleagues’ ideas in a place where everyone can access it. Of course, the problem of reliability and authority arises here too. Some of the most vocal may be the most unreliable. However if you want to get everyone’s opinion or brainstorm, the Wiki may be the best route.

The best use of a wiki that I have seen is preconference planning. Conferences have used wikis as a tool to get collaborative discussions going on lodging, restaurants, conference speakers, and sightseeing.