Learning about Wikis

I am now back into the Manukau Libraries Web 2 Learning exercises after several months break from it.

So have started where I left off at Lesson 5 and it is all about Wikis. It was interesting to read about the pros and cons of wikis. The most famous wiki is, of course, Wikipedia which is like an encyclopedia which anyone can contribute to with their knowledge on a particular subject. Then another person can add to or edit this information and so it goes from there.

The great thing about wikis is that information can easily be added by anyone without knowing HTML. Another advantage is that it is easily kept up-to-date with new information, whereas an encyclopedia has to be scrutinised by experts before it is published and means delay in getting the information.

However, even though wikis can give 'instant' information on a topic, this information may be inaccurate or misleading. People can also vandalise the information posted. So it is probably not a good idea to base any research just on wikis, you need to verify your findings from other sources of information such as reference material.

Another use for Wikis is, for example, if you were going to a conference in a city you have never been to before, a wiki could be created and people can add such information as which restaurants they liked, timetables for the conference and attractions they enjoyed doing.