wiki, wiki, try to make some info sticky

Well, after last week's chaos (floods and jury duty in the same week...who'd a thunk it--I was keeping my eyes peeled for locusts by Friday, let me tell you) I look forward to a boring (hopefully), normal (well, on a relative scale), regular work week.

So, back in the groove and ready to get wiki (I'm sure there's got to be a dance for this, perhaps if we search on YouTube).

Viewed screencast (check)--good basic info; well-narrated by Jeannie; one complaint--I hate web pages that are too wide so you have to scroll back and forth all the time, this is a general problem but the screencast was too tall to all be seen at once too--so, WHINE.

OK, step 2 looking at Stevens County wiki--I liked the idea of the events calendars being wiki-able, that way groups can post there stuff without going through some type of 'coordinator', and some of the stuff that happens there looks like fun (not actually driving 8 hours fun, but, you know, virtually fun). Also checked out the Book Lust wiki (because Nancy Pearl rocks, duh) I did notice that no matter how many people can post on a wiki, somebody still needs to update the fact that Book Crush has been published...not to be published in April 2007 (unless the breach in the time-space continuum got me again). Through that wiki I ended up on a page reviewing a biography of Mary Shelley, which could have led me to many other things--but I resisted the suck of the Internet and used my back button.

So, then it's off to the fancy new KRL wiki (I have to admit, I like the word--plus it rhymes with a lot, we could make a great Dr. Seuss parody...but I digress). Looked around, messed with stuff. I thought I'd leave fixing spelling errors to those people who get all squirmy and freaked out by that stuff (you know who you are...there might be a support group, but I'm not absolutely sure) and be silly. I added a picture of the Taj Mahal as the fake branch's building and linked the Peter Pan reference to the Wikipedia page on him (the character, I do know he's not real--Tinkerbell is real [clap, clap, clap]) in case people didn't catch it right off.

And here I am blogging about the whole wiki thang. I can see where a wiki might be useful for some of the stuff we currently have on the staff web page and the transfer file. That seems the most likely use in-house. For the public side: events calendars, general area information, suggestions about places to go, etc. have potential. My big concern is the whole 'horse by committee' problem (punchline--camel)...accuracy is maintained with a lot of diligence...who's going to do that part? Plus, of course we have that old friend Paranoia tapping on my shoulder asking just what the people without the best intentions (can we say SALMON) might do if they got going. Anyway, I see wiki potential in both good and bad directions. Being a cynical optimist (basically, I hope for the best but ain't all that shocked when a certain bodily refuse hits a certain air-circulating device) I hope we can find a good use for getting wiki (really, it sounds like there should be a dance) AND I hope we can avoid the camel humps.

Hope everyone has dried out. I'm for my hole.