Thing 8 - Creating a wiki

I created this wiki:
http://exhibitscomm.wetpaint.com/

The wiki is for a library committee that I am on that is responsible for the exhibit spaces within our library. Our committee members are not all from the library, so having a wiki would be an easy way for us to share information besides e-mail.

I have used WetPaint before, but it was a little while ago. I think the interface is pretty user friendly. The ads are annoying, but it is nice to see that educational groups can get an ad-free wiki (although the wiki I created would likely not qualify).

The first thing that struck me when I got the Wet Paint site was that they don't call their software a wiki, they call it a website. They say "to create your own website, click here". I know you can use a wiki to create a website, but it was interesting that even Wet Paint is no longer called itself wiki software.

We do currently use wikis at my library. We use them on the staff side, primarily for information that used to be found in "desk binders" at our service points. Having all of the information online makes it much easier to access and to search. We are also using it for a project we are working on for a library service we call "roving".

For information that is updated frequently, I think a wiki is nice because it makes it very easy for any library staff member to edit the information. I think that is why the wiki format is working so well for for things like desk manuals.