People are joining together to build a new, comprehensive, general knowledge wiki encyclopedia. Most everyone is familiar with Wikipedia. Now there is Citizendium, where the aim is to build a better encyclopedia. For starters, real names are required to join and create Citizendium articles. The agreements and guidelines assure greater accuracy and authority. The community wishes to promote a "gold standard of sensible governance systems," including expert editors who review articles, as well as constables who monitor behavior but who have limited authority. Confidence in the database is further enhanced by "signed articles" from experts and academics, and the inclusion of supplementary reference materials. Spend some time reading their introductory pages and see why librarians might be happier with Citizendium than Wikipedia.
Wikis are popular for another reason -- information is organized by topic rather than date. Blogs resemble an online diary,a stream of thoughts and ideas posted in reverse chronological order. True, blogs can be keyword searched if well tagged . Wikis have an additional collaborative advantage; the body of knowledge can be easily expanded, edited and revised. A nice summary of both advantages and disadvantages of wikis is covered by PLCMC Core Competencies, a public library blog that refers the reader to a wiki defining the "core competencies" training offered by their library. Their core competencies are unique to their library staff goals. Another library organization may choose other core competency requirements and build a similar document in a collaborative effort. Building the wiki together enhances a team approach to the purposes of the project.
I hope to cover more on the topic of wikis in the near future.
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