Wikis: Tools for Information Work and Collaboration

Citation

Barker, P. (2006), "Wikis: Tools for Information Work and Collaboration", The Electronic Library, Vol. 24 No. 5, pp. 718-720. https://doi.org/10.1108/02640470610707349

In a previous edition of this journal I wrote a review (Barker, 2005) of a book called Web Logs in Libraries (Clyde, 2004). Blogs (as they are often called) and wikis are frequently referred to as “social software” (or “groupware”) because they can facilitate the creation of knowledge by groups of people working together in a collaborative way. While a blog is essentially an electronic document that is created by a single author (to which others can add comments), a wiki, in contrast, is a web page that can be added to or modified by anyone who has appropriate access rights and a web browser with Internet connectivity. Probably, the most well known example of a wiki is the famous “Wikipedia” site (see www.wikipedia.org).

Bearing in mind the rapidly growing interest that now exists in the collaborative authoring and sharing of electronic knowledge, this book on wikis is very timely. It contains a collection of eight chapters authored by an international team of writers. The first part of the book presents introductory, background material. This is followed by a section that deals with application areas. The final part then covers issues relating to the creation, hosting and management of wikis. Each chapter is accompanied by a collection of end‐notes and, in addition, following the main part of the book, there is a short reference section containing pointers to further information about wikis. There is also a useful appendix that lists a collection of questions that can be used to help evaluate particular wikis and their potential value as sources of information. Interestingly, the book itself has an accompanying wiki at: www.booki.info

The first chapter of the book provides an overview of wikis. It outlines their history, development and uses. Definitions are also given for some related terminology – for example, “wiki farm”, “sandbox” and “wiki gardening”! In the second chapter the author explores the role of wikis as information sources; in this context they can be used as either a private or a public resource. This chapter concentrates upon their use as public sources of information – that is, ones that are publicly available on the World Wide Web. As well as providing lots of different examples, this chapter also considers such issues as their advantages, problem areas and factors that need to be considered when attempting to evaluate their worth in terms of information content. Chapter 3 introduces tools and techniques for finding wikis and wiki content. It begins with a general discussion of the role of the internet search engines for “wiki work” and introduces the main tools available for finding and browsing wikis on a specific topic. The chapter concludes with a review of developments in wiki search engines.

Following on from the first three introductory chapters, there are three chapters that deal with particular application areas: Library and Information Science (LIS), Business, and Education. In the LIS sector, wiki technology is being used to support collaboration, document good practice and act as a knowledge repository for library related matters. Within business environments, the book reports three prominent patterns of wiki usage: as a tool for project and group collaboration, as a knowledge base and as a means of gathering and disseminating new information within an organisation – especially in conjunction with RSS feeds. Obviously wikis have an important role to play in education. Some of the educational uses of wikis described in Chapter 6 include: their use for creating e‐portfolios, collaborative writing, peer review and the creation of communities of practice within a given knowledge domain. Indeed, according to the author of this chapter (p. 137), wiki use in education is about “learning, knowledge creation and knowledge development” within a community of learners. Unfortunately, some parts of these application‐oriented chapters are difficult to read as they consist of descriptive compilations of wiki sites; these parts are therefore best used as a reference source.

The final two chapters deal with various issues relating to the creation and management of wikis. In Chapter 7, the authors explain how a wiki actually works. They then describe the various technical options available for developing and hosting wikis. Each option is described in detail and the pros and cons of each approach are identified. Chapter 8 discusses important management issues relating to the design, implementation and use of this type of software. Three major aspects of management are considered: technology management, content management and the social management of contributors. Each of these aspects is discussed within the framework provided by a wiki management lifecycle involving four main phases: planning, creation, sustenance and evaluation.

Overall, I think this book makes a valuable contribution to the field of groupware and collaborative knowledge construction. It contains lots of valuable tips and advice and provides a wealth of useful information – especially in terms of pointers to other sources of material on wikis. The book is relatively free of errors and is, in the main, very readable. However, one minor presentational issue is the very small size of some of the diagrams – which, even with a magnifying glass, are difficult to read. Unfortunately, this problem is an inherent part of taking information, intended for a “big screen”, and reducing its size in order to fit it into the page space of a relatively small book.