Wiki case study

The Bull Run Library: At the very beginning, I didn’t think it’s a wiki because its appearance looks like a regular webpage. After I read the URL pbwiki.com, I realized that it’s a wiki on a public wiki platform. But, honestly, I still don’t think this is a real wiki because it doesn’t allow people to input, or at least I have no idea how to participate. In addition, there is an archive section on the right hand side which makes it more like a blog. So I think the creator should reconsider the wiki site and make some changes in order to attract some external contributions.

Butler WikiRef: This wiki looks very amateurish in terms of layout and text, but it does provide some wiki functions to invite people to participate. Anyone could add or delete contents as they wish. All entries are organized alphabetically on this wiki, so users could easily locate a specific entry. One thing should be improved is to provide search function. I could not find a search box on this site (I am not sure if I missed it), so I would not be able to find information if the term is not in the directory.

Ohio University libraries Biz Wiki:  This wiki uses mediawiki software which is also used by Wikipedia. Using the popular software might help promoting itself because most people will feel comfortable when using a familiar tool. However, users need an account to participate on this wiki, so it restricts the freedom of adding or deleting contents.

Princeton Public Library: This library set up the book lovers wiki last year for summer reading club for adults. It seems they had a huge success because they had almost 200 reviews. They encouraged readers to participate, so most reviews were from readers instead of staff. The drawback of this wiki is because this wiki is only associated with summer reading club, it becomes useless in the rest of the year. I noticed that the revision on this wiki ended on Sep 20, 2006, so they have to promote it again this summer. Princeton Public Library should consider how to improve this wiki and add some new topics, so users could come to visit regularly.

SJCPLSubjectGuides: This wiki shares same strength and weakness as Ohio Biz Wiki. I really like the interface and functions, but sadly I have no rights to modify contents.

USC: I don’t not think this is a wiki, although it’s powered by PmWiki. I checked PmWiki’s website and it states that PmWiki pages look and act like normal web pages, except they have an “Edit” link that makes it easy to modify existing pages and add new pages into the website. Because USC restricts the access to “Edit” function, regular users would have no rights to edit. Obviously they use this software to create a regular website instead of a wiki. In addition, the blog on this site is not created by using PmWiki, they just provided a link to WordPress.

Wyoming Authors Wiki: I like this wiki because it clearly states its purpose on the homepage “The Wyoming Authors Wiki is a clearinghouse for information on book authors who’ve lived in Wyoming or who write about Wyoming”. The functions provided on this wiki are powerful. Users could search the wiki or browse by author, county or genre. Very detailed help information is provided on this wiki. Well done.