Wikis
A wiki is a website that is easily edited by visitors - it's a great way to collaborate with colleagues, whether you're sharing lecture notes or jointly working through theoretical concepts in a reading group. Some wikis have password protection in order to be edited only by members of a particular group, whereas others are open to anyone without registration.
One common way to use wikis is to support planning for meetings: a provisional agenda is drawn up and the URL is distributed to the participants, who are then free to comment or to add their own items. Once the meeting is under way, the wiki serves as a note-taking space, and the notes are instantly available online, allowing the participants or anybody else to review and annotate the proceedings. This use can easily be extrapolated to reading or study groups or even entire classes, especially with the increasing presence of wireless networks around the University.
Wikipedia is easily the most famous example of a wiki, and has established itself as a serious contender in encyclopedic stakes. If the information on a wiki is found wanting, anyone can come along and 'fix' it. Wiki experts and pundits have observed the phenomenon referred to as 'Darwikinism', in which only the fittest data survives. However, Wikipedia, like most wikis, is still not a suitable primary reference for most essays, just as any encyclopedia is generally not considered a scholarly source.
There are a number of sites that will host your wiki for free, such as:
Many of these sites have comprehensive tours to introduce you to the world of wikis, and nearly all have a 'sandbox', where you can test how it works without worrying about publicly 'messing up' a website.
Make your wiki work for you
An important aspect of keeping any online collaboration going, whether it's a discussion list, a forum or a wiki, is to have someone to lead (or moderate) the group. The moderator doesn't have to be 'in charge' so much as they have to be involved. To have a successful wiki, the moderator might email the group occasionally with 'carrots', that is, some sort of prompt to keep the group thinking about the collaboration. Another way to keep your wiki active is to ensure that all contributors sign up either for the email alerts of updates or subscribe to the RSS feed.
