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33 Wikis: #17 -- Wikitravel -- A Trusted Community for "Consumers Like You"

This is the seventeenth installment in "33 Wikis," a close look at best practices in wiki-based collaboration.  Each day -- for 33 days   -- we look at one wiki and briefly describe what the wiki is for, why we like it, and what we all can learn from it.  If you want to nominate a wiki, please let us know.  On day 34 we will post a public wiki featuring info on all nominees.

What this wiki is for:  We are shifting our focus these next few days to consumer sites, beginning with a collaborative project called Wikitravel.   From the home page:  "Wikitravel is a project to create a free, complete, up-to-date and reliable world-wide travel guide. So far we have 8,293 destination guides and other articles written and edited by Wikitravellers from around the globe."

What we like about it:   When I was younger -- and far more restless, but far less able financially -- I depended on budget travel guides to help me plan and navigate trips to Europe.  My favorite was the Let's Go series, which was written mostly for people generally like me: recent college grads, budget-conscious, and open to a more-than-occasional detour -- a relaxed if superior attitude that viewed traditional travel guides as silly, irrelevant, and, most important, untrustworthy.  In short, the Let's Go series played well to a large population of consumers who shared a common ethos -- "smart and adventurous travel ... on a shoestring."  The community was very loosely defined, but it was real enough and big enough that it worked. 

The world of travel has changed a lot since those days, in large part because the first Let's Go generations have grown up (looking back on old itineraries, many of us are saying "let's not").  But even younger travelers today are a lot more sophisticated.  Along comes Wikitravel, a collaborative site that seems well-suited to the needs of any informed traveler, young or old, rich or poor ... provided you accept the new ethos:   that the new community of travelers -- Wikitravellers -- can all get smarter by sharing what they know.   In a sense, this site does for smart travelers today what Let's Go first did for young travelers a few generations ago -- make the world a little smaller by bringing together like-minded people.   It reminds us of the Edelman Trust Barometer -- we tend to trust people who are most like us.  In the world of travel guides -- there are so many -- Wikitravel may have found a great way for like-minded people to share info on all sorts of topics, including traveling with families, info on airfare, hotels, itineraries, dining, health, and safety.   

What we all can learn from it:   This is another example of how a distributed, volunteer online community might do a better job than a publisher in documenting the intricacies of a complex market.  But the "trust" factor (discussed above) is another big takeaway.  Private and public organizations can learn a lot from this wiki, which demonstrates the role that trusted communities can play in helping consumers make important decisions.

Also worth noting:  Can I Crash?, a wiki service that "lets you lend your sofa to travelling bloggers."  Talk about trust.

33 Wikis: # 16 -- The Tax Almanac

This is the sixteenth installment in "33 Wikis," a close look at best practices in wiki-based collaboration.  Each day -- for 33 days -- we look at one wiki and briefly describe what the wiki is for, why we like it, and what we all can learn from it.  If you want to nominate a wiki, please let us know.  On day 34 we will post a public wiki featuring info on all nominees.

What this wiki is for:  Finally, a wiki that even my mother would like.  I'm serious -- my mother prepares taxes for consultants and small businesses.   The Tax Almanac is "a free tax research resource brought to you by Intuit, the makers of the professional tax preparation products Lacerte and ProSeries .... Our goal is to transform tax research and to improve the effectiveness of tax professionals everywhere."

Why we like it:   There are so many reasons we like this wiki, starting with the corporate sponsorship.  As we note above, this is a project "brought to you by Intuit," the maker of many tax and accounting software products.  The Tax Almanac is a smart use of a collaborative environment where everyone can benefit -- the professional community and the corporate sponsor alike -- while the burden of developing and maintaining the wiki is distributed.   Second, this is a very good resource that taps the wisdom of a very sophisticated crowd that live and work across the country.  And it's a nicely designed (organized) wiki, making it easier for participants to find what they need and contribute.

What we all can learn from it:  Tax is clearly a subject where the wisdom of the crowd beats the intelligence of the individual.  But perhaps the biggest takeaway is the nature of the corporate sponsorship, which not only keeps Intuit close to its customers -- in this case, professional consumers of its tax and accounting products -- but also helps with visibility and brand (BusinessWeek recently named The Tax Almanac a "pacesetter" in collaboration).  But also note:  you'll have a hard time finding the word wiki on the home page (scroll down ... way down).  We love the word wiki, but we may need other words as the tool continues to migrate from the world of developers and to the bigger world of non-techy professionals and consumers (hi, Mom).

33 Wikis -- #15 -- The Library Success Wiki -- Wikis for Professional Development

This is the fifteenth installment in "33 Wikis," a close look at best practices in wiki-based collaboration.  Each day -- for 33 days -- we look at one wiki and briefly describe what the wiki is for, why we like it, and what we all can learn from it.  If you want to nominate a wiki, please let us know.  On day 34 we will post a public wiki featuring info on all nominees.

What this wiki is for:  This week we looked at wikis for politics, and wikis for education. Big theme all week has been information, and today we turn to folks in the information sciences, namely librarians.  One of the best specimens in this category is a wiki called Library Success that bills itself as follows: “… one-stop-shop for great ideas and information for all types of librarians. All over the world, librarians are developing successful programs and doing innovative things with technology that no one outside of their library knows about. There are lots of great blogs out there sharing information about the profession, but there is no one place where all of this information is collected and organized.”

Why we like it:  Created by Meredith Farkas, a librarian in Vermont, the Library Success wiki serves as a collaborative site for librarians all over the world. As with many other professions, the teaching and practice of library sciences varies widely state to state and country to country. This wiki serves to raise the standard across all territories, with information on best practices in technology, training, programming, professional ethics, and other topics.

What we all can learn from it:  the wiki as steward to a profession holds a lot of promise, and we believe that the Library Success wiki is a great example.  We expect other professions to build out collaborative environments for their own folks, but as is true of all wikis, it takes the energy and dedication of an evangelist and gardener (in this case Farkas) to get anything meaningful going.

33 Wikis: #14 -- The Science of Spectroscopy Wiki -- The Long-Tail of Education

This is the fourteenth installment in "33 Wikis," a close look at best practices in wiki-based collaboration.  Each day -- for 33 days -- we look at one wiki and briefly describe what the wiki is for, why we like it, and what we all can learn from it.  If you want to nominate a wiki, please let us know.  On day 34 we will post a public wiki featuring info on all nominees.

What this wiki is for:  The Science of Spectroscopy Wiki is a collaborative site for the teaching of spectroscopy to university-level and advanced high-school students.  Definition (Wikipedia): "Spectroscopy is the study of spectra, that is, the dependence of physical quantities on frequency."  It is often used in physical and analytical chemistry, and astronomy. 

Why we like it:  The evangelist and gardener of this wiki is Stewart Mader, an instructional technologist in math and sciences at Brown University.  As we learned in a recent comment, Mader and his cohorts have created an environment that enables students "to learn about spectroscopy using a model that starts with real-world applications, gets them engaged and asking 'how does it work?' and then teaches techniques and theory."  What we really like about this wiki is how it has attracted a global community of collaborators -- scientists, teachers and students -- to work on group projects.  In effect, the wiki has created a global classroom.

What we all can learn from it:  Just as wikis are enabling people to go beyond organizational boundaries, they can also enable groups to recruit the best participants across geographic boundaries.  And while spectroscopy may constitute a small neighborhood in the larger world of education, the contribution that the wiki has made to the teaching of this subject might inspire folks from other fields to do the same.  We will soon tire of using the phrase "long tail," but it is very appropriate here.  Niche matters, and Internet tools can help people to find one another.  [Note:  Tomorrow, Mader will present a paper on the wiki, at the excellent HigherEd BlogCon.]

33 Wikis: #13 -- The Westwood Wiki -- Wikis in the Schools

This is the thirteenth installment in "33 Wikis," a close look at best practices in wiki-based collaboration.  Each day -- for 33 days -- we look at one wiki and briefly describe what the wiki is for, why we like it, and what we all can learn from it.  If you want to nominate a wiki, please let us know.  On day 34 we will post a public wiki featuring info on all nominees.

What this wiki is for:  The Westwood Wiki is a collaborative workspace for the Westwood Schools (K-12) in Camilla, Georgia.  The gardener and evangelist is computer science teacher Vicki A. Davis, AKA "Cool Cat Teacher."  Davis and her students have created a highly interactive, vibrant workspace that supplements several parts of the Westwood curricula.

Why we like it:  Wikis are getting lots of interest in the schools because the benefits of peer production and participation are becoming better known.  But to really get a wiki going like Westwood has, you need an evangelist with Davis' stamina and character.  She's encouraged her students to not only use the wiki, but to immerse themselves in all things Web 2.0.  As a result, this is a pretty sophisticated site, with a few unexpected treats (check out the 4th grade podcast -- a bit cute, yes, but still impressive).  We also like that Davis has shared so much about her experience.  Her notes on the wiki and in her blog will help other teachers navigate their own entry into the world of tech-supported education.

What we all can learn from it:  Like all the wikis in this series, the Westwood Wiki has lessons for people in markets outside its own.  The way wikis encourage and reward self-directed education should be of interest to any organization that has the mandate of developing its constituents (especially organizations that have been forced to do more with less).    

33 Wikis: #12 -- The ICANN Wiki -- Behold, The Event Wiki

This is the twelfth installment in "33 Wikis," a close look at best practices in wiki-based collaboration.  Each day -- for 33 days -- we look at one wiki and briefly describe what the wiki is for, why we like it, and what we all can learn from it.  If you want to nominate a wiki, please let us know.  On day 34 we will post a public wiki featuring info on all nominees.

What this wiki is for:  The ICANN Wiki is a collaborative site for people who take part in conferences for ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.  Wikipedia says this about ICANN:  "Headquartered in Marina Del Rey, ICANN is a California non-profit corporation that was created on September 18, 1998 in order to oversee a number of Internet-related tasks previously performed directly on behalf of the U.S. Government by other organizations, notably IANA."  Not clear?  In short, ICANN is one of the premier organizations-- if not the premier organization -- on Internet policy.

Why we like it:  Creative, funny, and hyperactive, the ICANN wiki will emerge as a model collaborative site for any organization seeking to leverage the community that supports its events.  But like many good event wikis, this wiki does not belong to the organization, ICANN, but to the ICANN community.  Going well beyond what any organization can do alone, this wiki enables conference participants to share notes, plan get-togethers, meet people, and much more.  And did we mention that the site is funny?  We love how many of the participants are featured in photos and caricatures  (click on the image to the left).

What we all can learn from it:    Event wikis are gaining traction in the technology world, and we expect they will go mainstream very soon.  There are so many benefits for participants.  And organizers too are learning that a wiki is a great way to support participants, who often attend conferences for reasons only they know.   Check out, for example, the official Web 2.0 2005 wiki, which helped attendees to organize several successful after-hour events.

33 Wikis: #11 -- The Politics.ie Wiki -- A Living Encyclopedia of Ireland

This is the eleventh installment in "33 Wikis," a close look at best practices in wiki-based collaboration.  Each day -- for 33 days -- we look at one wiki and briefly describe what the wiki is for, why we like it, and what we all can learn from it.  If you want to nominate a wiki, please let us know.  On day 34 we will post a public wiki featuring info on all nominees.

What this wiki is for:  The organizers of the "Politics.ie Wiki" describe their project as follows: 

"Our aim is to create the largest online resource of Irish political information.... This is a member driven Irish political encyclopedia, so the more help you give us the better it will become. We're currently working on 3005 articles on Irish politics."

Why we like it:  While dKosopedia attempts to educate U.S. progressives, the "Politics.ie Wiki" seeks to educate all Irish political watchers on the history, current events, and the inner workings of government.  Because of the country's colorful, tumultuous history, this project has a lot of interesting material to work with; contributors are putting the wiki to good use in collecting, dissecting and managing that material. 

What we all can learn from it:  This is a good example of the wiki as reference, a category that the much, much larger Wikipedia has helped to popularize.  But don't let the relative smallness of the "Politics.ie Wiki" (3,000-plus articles) fool you -- it may still be one of the best, and most up-to-date references on Irish politics available.  By combining historical and current information resources, the wiki blurs the lines between reference and news, just as Wikipedia has done on a larger scale.  Think of this wiki as part of the long tail of worldwide, wiki-based publishing projects.

33 Wikis: #10 -- The DoWire Wiki -- School for e-democracy?

This is the tenth installment in "33 Wikis," a close look at best practices in wiki-based collaboration.  Each day -- for 33 days -- we look at one wiki and briefly describe what the wiki is for, why we like it, and what we all can learn from it.  If you want to nominate a wiki, please let us know.  On day 34 we will post a public wiki featuring info on all nominees.

What this wiki is for: "DoWire's E-Democracy Best Practices Wiki," a project of DoWire.org, is a "collaborative drafting environment" for people interested in e-democracy.   DoWire founder Steven Clift defines e-democracy as follows: 

E-democracy represents the use of information and communication technologies and strategies by democratic actors within political and governance processes of local communities, nations and on the international stage. Democratic actors/sectors include governments, elected officials, the media, political organizations, and citizen/voters.

To many, e-democracy suggests greater and more active citizen participation enabled by the Internet, mobile communications, and other technologies in today’s representative democracy as well as through more participatory or direct forms of citizen involvement in addressing public challenges.

The DoWire wiki provides a workspace on the Web for both practioners and students of e-democracy to share information on tools and best practices.

Why we like it:  As a front-page article in today's New York Times notes, the Internet is fast becoming the preferred medium for political communication, and DoWire's commitment to promoting the use of the Internet for more representative government may soon start getting a bigger audience.  The wiki looks at experiments inside and outside the U.S. (see the pages on projects in Canada and the U.K.), and features a well-written "Best Practices Guide" based on Clift's model for e-democracy.  Participants can share info on how governments are using Internet tools to get closer to their constituents, involve them more in policy-making, and in making various processes more transparent.

What we all can learn from it:  If dKosopedia is a virtual school for progressives, the DoWire wiki is a virtual school for anyone interested in learning how to make the Internet work better for government.  Beyond the world of politics, it also shows how a wiki can be used to evolve the way we think about deeply-entrenched institutional processes. As we'll see in the latter part of "33 Wikis," collaborative technology has also generated great conversation about the evolution of governance in business, and a number of interesting experiments are already underway.

Related links:

--e-democracy wiki

--deliberative-democracy.net wiki

-- "A Manager's Guide to Civic Engagement," courtesy of The IBM Center for The Business of Government.

--Corante's "Civic Minded" blog

33 Wikis: #9 -- DKOSOPEDIA -- SCHOOL FOR PROGRESSIVES?

This is the ninth installment in "33 Wikis," a close look at best practices in wiki-based collaboration.  Each day -- for 33 days -- we look at one wiki and briefly describe what the wiki is for, why we like it, and what we all can learn from it.  If you want to nominate a wiki, please let us know.  On day 34 we will post a public wiki featuring info on all nominees.

What this wiki is for:  a wiki project by DailyKos, the most popular political blog in the world, dKosopedia describes itself as a "collaborative project of the DailyKos community to build a political encyclopedia. The dKosopedia is written from a left/progressive/liberal/Democratic point of view while also attempting to fairly acknowledge the other side's take. It was started in April of 2004, and currently consists of 5,494 articles."

Why we like it:  Of all the political wikis we've visited, dKosopedia seems to have the greatest potential as a vehicle for bridging the camps that comprise the general progressive agenda.  The wiki was born in the midst of widespread soul-searching in the Democratic party, many of whose leaders had begun to marvel over the Republican Party's ability to consistently stay on message.  dKosopedia's architecture reveals an acute sensitivity to this issue, providing resources such as "frameshop" (nod to George Lakoff's now famous attempts to educate progressives to connect better with voters), a political "glossary," and a "meme tank" (instructing participants on ways to create better, persistent ideas and themes for discussion on the Internet).

What we all can learn from it:  Politics aside, dKosopedia represents an interesting case study for any organization struggling to define itself and get consensus on mission, ideology, and direction.  By taking both a bottoms up and top-down approach, this type of wiki may in fact help to create an emergent organization -- an organization where none truly existed before.  Whether this works for the broad groups of people who identify themselves as progressive is another question.  And as many a critic of Lakoff has said, it will take a lot more than PR lessons to win the hearts and minds of voters.  Still, from our perspective, this wiki project is one worth watching as we move toward the next presidential election. 

33 Wikis Update -- Politicians, Teachers, and Taxes

As we said yesterday, we will soon be turning our attention to political wikis.  In fact, we'll be writing about a couple this weekend.  One problem -- we have great examples of how folks on the left are using the technology, not so great examples from the right.  This is an equal opportunity blog series, so let's hear from everyone.

After the weekend, we'll look at wikis in education and knowledge management.  Lots of interesting experiments in those areas.  Sneak peek -- we're going to find out how the CoolCatTeacher earned her street cred.  We'll also talk about a wiki that can help you prepare for April 15th.  Something for everyone ....