overlap of things 17 & 18

Since the first go-round of the 23 (now 28) Things, I've become more familiar with wikis. I've also been using Google Docs, a cloud-based word processing app, for several months, using it not just as an exercise but writing real documents together with real people for real-world purposes. Yes, together. Unlike word processors that reside on a hard drive, documents in the cloud can be shared; anyone with permission can log on from any computer and make additions and other changes, sort of like a wiki. A lot like a wiki. A wiki by any other name ...

Then there's Google Wave, released in beta last year, which was supposed to be even more wiki-ish, but which has faded into the background. Maybe people were embarrassed by the idea that their typing, and therefore typos, could be seen in real time. Maybe the problem was just that the limited, by-invitation-only release didn't provide enough of a quorum for such a specifically social medium. In my corner of the Wave world, we just sent a few messages back and forth saying things along the lines of, "Hey, cool." -- "Uh, yeah. So what do we do with it?" -- "Write something." -- "O.k. What?" -- until we got bored and returned to texting, Facebook, and e-mail. The person with whom I was already collaborating on a document didn't see the need to subscribe to yet another service with another login and password just to do what we were already.

wikis revisited

I'm finding that wiki editing (or should I say, getting my head wrapped around the idea of wikis) went more smoothly on this go-round.

Being somewhat bored with the available topics, which all have to do with (yawn) reality, I started a new page, "Late at Night in the Library," a story which one and all are welcome to continue. The dragons are waiting for your input.

wikis (part 2)

Got the link to work in the TCCL wiki.

As for library uses of wikis, lists or discussions of books would be good, as would a community events page, to which anyone could add. It might be a good idea for entries to be monitored, mostly to keep some overzealous people from censoring those with opposing views. Or at the very least, have the log of changes up front and easy to get to, so that deletions don't truly disappear.

And check out Mary Poppins at your favorite library. It's a terrific piece of cinemagraphic art.

cool 2.0 sites out there

One of the coolest is Galaxiki. It's described as "a fictional galaxy that anyone can edit." This is great for writers who like to make up worlds, especially those who like to make worlds, but don't really want to bother with plots and such nonsense.

I'm not going to sign up for it (right now) -- for the same reason I'm not (for now) going to get on Second Life -- for the same reason I'm not (probably ever) going to get on Twitter. It would turn into a major time drain, a black hole that would spaghettify my life and pull it past the event horizon into a universe far, far away.

I'll just mention it here, so I have the link handy in case I have a moment of weakness in the future -- y'know, those times when you're bored, and in your boredom feel like you've got all the time in the world, and so you commit to something that looks like fun but you later regret ...

wikis (part 1)

I'm not sure what to make of wikis, altho' the concept of using computers for collaborative writing or shared authorship has been around for a long time. I vaguely recollect futurists' predictions of all fiction becoming the "choose-your-own-ending variety," but except as a novelty, that doesn't hold much appeal for me. The power of the wiki, it seems, is as a tool for the types of documents that are already written by committee. Or would have been written by a committee if the committee found it easier to meet. Or maybe not -- maybe there are uses that someone mired in the past can't possibly imagine.

Tried the adding to the "sandbox" at Ambient Librarian, mainly because it resembles Wikipedia, but for some reason I couldn't get it to show a link. (Yes, I just poked around and didn't bother reading instructions).