Wikis

Many of us are involved in using wikis for a range of purposes.

It might be useful to sketch out some of the design parameters of wikis and related spaces:

Wikis
The mechanism of a wiki is collaborative writing and editing for knowledge construction, but if no-one uses it, its pointless. The fact is that most people who write on wikis already know - more or less - much of what is going to appear on the wiki. There is a spectrum of roles ranging across a range of overlapping categories, which goes something like:
 * Initiators and community drivers: set it up, get the core community in, and get it started.
 * Managers: chief 'gardeners', or 'horticultural managers': pruning, weeding, gatekeeping, bouncer functions, negotiating.
 * CAN Designers: categories, relationships, structure, community
 * Originators: contents
 * Editors: edit, verify, relate, link, prune
 * Writers: contribute content, often in small bytes, often a bit rough
 * Readers: use the content, and might add some details on contents or links
 * Searchers and scanners: JIT users: only in it for what they can get out, quick and easy.

And while categories at the top and the middle of the list are the most complex functions, and where you will find the key **value-adders**, the bottom three categories are the real clients, and the real **value-users**. All of this is much fuzzier than the neat list suggests, which is partlly why its so interesting and CAN-ish.

Wikis can usefully be used with, and integrated with, discussion forums. But you need to avoid confusion and overlap, and be careful how you build the conversation and the online community.
 * Wikis and Forums**

The basic design parameters go something like this: 1. For new online communities, **first** set up the discussion forums. These should include two key functions: Once the discussions are up and running, and start to take on a life of their own (ideally as //lightly moderated peer-learning//), move to step 2:
 * Exchange of information and answering queries (which is an access, adiministration and coordination function)
 * Providing the space for an **Ideas incubator** (which is a learning function).

2. Set up a wiki, to act first of all as an additional, supportive function, as a
 * Drop box: the drop box is there to catch particularly good 'nuggets' from the discussion forum.

How does this work? Meet with the community online or face-2-face, or both, let them know that you have set up a wiki, and ask them to carry out three tasks:
 * **Introductions:** ask them to go the the //Foyer// page that you have created in the wiki, and and post up a brief introduction to themselves and, if they like, to provide links to social software sites that they already run, such as My Space, Facebook, Flikr, blogs, etc.
 * **Nugget grabs:** Nugget grabs: ask them to have a look through the discussion forums, and see if they can find jst one nugget of a good idea, concept, or comment that **someone else** else has posted, that they think woudl be useful to capture and store in the wiki, in a new page, and enter the name of the page in the Contents column.
 * **Polishing the Nuggets:** Polishing the Nuggets: ask them to add to, edit, and in general to 'polish up' at least one other nugget.

Ask them to ensure that whatever starts to build in the wiki is linked back into the discussion forums where appropriate, by opening the wiki at the relevant page, copying the URL from the top of the page, and adding it, or pating it in, as a link in a discusssion fourm.

Note: you can set up the wiki right at the start of the online workshop, or course, but you must ensure that you dont interfere with, or distract from, the discussion forums.