Computers in Libraries 07, Tuesday

Nicole Engard, “Project planning the 2.0 way: Using blogs & wikis” (D202)

Her blog is at http://web2learning.net/ and will have her canned presentation and she may add screen shots from her wiki.

Instead of having meetings (either some people are missing or there are fewer meetings), and trading emails and phone calls, use a blog, because all can access it, when they have the time, and peoples’ activity is tracked by their number of comments/postings. Also all statements are in a common area so don’t miss out on reply to sender vs. reply to all. Comments are also archives and much more easily searched.

Each project has a blog and each staff member has the ability to setup a blog and interact with them. Everything still gets time stamped, and it cuts down on emails.

When the project is complete, put the documents on a wiki on the intranet. It is web-based, full-text, archived, backed-up, has history of edits, and open to all for when each needs it. Documentation on projects (goals, follow-up plans, etc.) are all in a common area for all to see and use. They also put a shared library calendar on their wiki.

They have a help button on each page, so when there is a problem, the error report comes from/with the page that is having problems.

Engard then showed a live use of her blog and wiki interface.

They used WYSIWIG Pro for creating/posting, and it costs $40 for non-profits.

Wiki’s have history so even if someone messes thing up (even if they attempt to destroy information) it can be restored by the administrator.

They can collaborate on training and guides, because the wiki is editable with comments. And you do not have to remember where you put it because the wiki is searchable.

Q&A

- How do they do project archiving & change it from blog into wiki? They edit a project and archive it. Then they have to change it over to a wiki.

- It is their creation and it is based on php and mysql. Joomla is an opensource/free software that you could use instead of doing your own code.

- You can also use wordpress for the blog, then download it for your server if it works for you.

See http://web2learning.net/learn-more