Wikis and Concepts of Authorship
The LiB recently posted about Citizendium.Org a new wiki project which identifies the authorship of the posting. Citizendium.Org will be like Wikipedia with comprehensive coverage. However, unlike Wikipedia, authorship will be identified.
The UBC HealthLib-Wiki models another method of identifying authorship on wikis. Some of the students and instructors from LIBR 534 have identified themselves as authors in the "Wiki Team" section. This may be because they are the only ones who have written content on the wiki. I wonder if any one has written content for the UBC HealthLib-Wiki, and yet not identified themselves as part of the team?
I am personally a fan of wikis and believe there is a great deal to be gained from this shared, collaborative medium. However, I wonder if we (as the audience/readers) are losing important data gained by knowing who has written the work.
For more on wikis, check out a recent talk by my colleague, Eugene Barsky delivered to the Vancouver Association of Law Libraries, "Wiking in Your Library: A Practical Overview".
posted by Katherine @ 5:04 PM
1 Comments:
Actually, I have to admit our wiki is not yet at a stage where it is functioning by collaboration. (I do most of the work.)
I found out recently that Wikipedia has a core group of contributors of less than 4000. That is indicative, I think, of the small interest that a niche wiki will generate, and how many visitors will contribute. We will trial the wiki for a year and then evaluate it at six and twelve months. Time will tell.
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