The phenomenon of wikis is often mentioned alongside that of blogs to form the blogs/wikis partnership. This really isn't very accurate, since the pace of their implementation can hardly be compared. Blogs are much more well-known overall, despite the fact that one of the most famous sites on the Web is the Wikipedia. Let's face it: blogs are out there by the millions and have made a cultural statement, while wikis lag far behind. This is true in our library world, too. The surveys I've seen about librarian participation have all shown much higher numbers for blogs than for wikis.

This is a little puzzling in that wikis are as potentially "disruptive" to the status quo as blogs. The opportunity to have a group-managed Web site with version control is powerful. As with blogs, wikis can maintain control over who can create and edit materials. Both are run by content management systems, so the basics of working with content are not terribly difficult.

You would think that the Library 2.0 Wiki would be brimming with content. Ironically, the Blogging Libraries Wiki has much more. It's those over-the-top blogs again!

Why are blogs so much more popular than wikis? I'll speculate on a few factors:

• Blogs favor personal expression and comments-as-conversation, and in recent years the personalized Web has become paramount.
• Blogs have been embraced by large dot-coms such as Google and Microsoft, and free, Web-hosted services abound.
• There are plenty of wiki software programs from which to choose - for example, see this list of wiki engines - but fewer hosted services (PBwiki being one).
• Many people don't quite understand the difference between a group-managed Web site and a group-managed wiki, maybe because the notion of a content management system and version control can be mysterious.

I've personally found a handful of wikis to be worth following. These include The Unofficial EZProxy Self-Support Wiki (gotta love the disclaimers), Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki, and those ALA conference wikis that Meridith Farkas trots out twice a year.

The potential use of blogs by academic librarians is enormous. As I think about this potential, I'm reminded of my first post on this blog showing Jack Maness' comparison between Library 1.0 and Library 2.0 which included Email mailing lists, webmasters ---> Blogs, wikis, RSS feeds. The revolutionary things about wikis is the fading out of webmasters and the focusing in on the group. No, I'm not recommending (yet) that we do away with library Web sites. But I'm interested in the notion of opening up our sites to user participation.

Let's think about librarians first. Imagine that, as a supplement to your local library organization's site, you can participate in a wiki. This wiki is open to organization members for posting committee minutes, developing organizational and support documents, compiling lists of resources, announcing meetings, wiki-ing the next conference (we need a good wiki verb!), sharing materials, etc.

Imagine that your staff site, like that of the University of Minnesota, is a wiki. If you have a staff site now, imagine how it would be different if some or all of it were a wiki. As just one example, if you've ever worked on a library-wide strategic plan, think about how a wiki might make that process easier.

When you write your next article with colleagues, or work on your next group conference presentation, how about using a wiki to support your research and the series of manuscript or presentation drafts?

I'm all for a committee wiki - though I'm not sure there's enough storage space in the world to support all our library committees!

These are just a few tip-of-the-iceberg ideas.

When it comes to students and faculty, it gets more interesting. I'll address that in my next entry.