Widgets, Wiki's and All Manner of Words

One of my favorite old movies is a piece of fluff from 1963 with James Garner called the "Wheeler Dealers". In this movie Garner, who plays a irresistible conman, is involved in buying a factory that sells "widgets" but no one seems to know what they are. Who could have imagined in 1963 that a "widget" would have particular significance to a Wiki in 2008? Of course the "widget" of 1963 is not the "widget" of 2008, but still, it is one of those coincidences that tends to make my brain go in a different direction. You can't help but look at all the weaving the universe does as it moves us along helter-skelter.

But back to Wiki's. I found it interesting that the introductory video didn't address many concerns but instead was just this "It's great!" presentation. As I looked at the examples offered and more links, people started identifying possible short comings and how to address them; things like spam and security. For instance the ability for people to edit is a big selling point in the video, but what if you don't want them to edit what is there? I never really got a good answer to that but can extrapolate that in the details you address this factor when you set the Wiki up. I am assuming that if a teacher wants to use it as a means of communication and sharing, there are places on the Wiki where people can communicate, but you could also have your syllabus on the Wiki that only you, the teacher could edit. I may be wrong about all this though, because I never found a site where they answered these questions.

I could see where a Wiki might serve as a tool for pre-meeting brainstorming within an organization like ours. Instead of people traveling 50 or 60 miles, a lot of the groundwork could be done via the Wiki. For instance if you wanted to determine 10 positive steps to get teens to turn out for a program you could generate a list and people could add to the list and prioritize it. So this could be a helpful tool. You could enlist ideas from a larger sampling than just the group involved in the meeting by opening up the Wiki to all staff. But, someone has to take the time to maintain it, people have to have the time to use it and so you have to evaluate how useful it would really be. Like the My Space accounts, the blogs, and all the other tools we've been learning about, someone has to pay attention to these accounts and maintain them if you create them. How much time do we want to give to this and what are the trade offs?