Wikis

My work computer only has IE6. What's up with that?

Anyway, it's meant I can't edit the SocialOULS wiki. But I've done that before- I made this page for our library last year: http://socialouls.wetpaint.com/page/OIL That page does need to be Bodleian-ised tho, maybe I'll try to do it whilst on the front desk over lunch (the front desk has Firefox, thankfully!)

I've done lots of wiki editting in the past- Wikipedia, the Social OULS wiki, and most of all on a wiki for Viking Age Re-enactment I'm a member of.

I think wikis are great ways for people to pool knowledge. I love the way they get contributions from all sorts of people with all sorts of areas of specialist knowledge- it's the ultimate peer review. Obviously they're not perfect (containing a mixture of mistakes, deliberate misinformation, a general Western/American bias, and problems arising from the fact they're often written by enthusiastic amateurs not professions), but nothing is. And Wikipedia at least tries to acheive "Neutral Point Of View", even if that's a bit ridiculous and rather impossible.

The Wikipedia page about Wikipedia may not be the most unbiased source to find out about the problems with Wikipedia though!

Wikis get a big Yay from me!