Wiki Fun

I like the idea of the wiki as a group knowledge repository and I can see how it is beneficial for organising knowledge projects with many contributors. One person can edit and add to another’s entry with relative ease. Like the article says, it’s phenomenal how quickly wikis have been recognised as a valid source of knowledge and information management.

I have been particularly impressed with “Wikinorthia”, a local studies wiki of the northern suburbs of Melbourne. It has well organised categories, a good search function, simple but effective layout and includes lots of historic photographs. It's a good way of channelling local history knowledge into one forum. Today I found an article documenting the life of a local family who included a previous 1879 Melbourne Cup winner. Very appropriate given it’s Melbourne Cup Day today!

http://www.wikinorthia.net.au/index.php/Cracknell_family_of_Panton_Hill

I have also contributed to Wikipedia, adding to an entry on actress, Julianne Moore. As the information was in table format I had to work with html code. This was difficult and not altogether successful but my addition was still published. It was a worthwhile experience in creating and sharing knowledge with an “invisible” community of users.