Have you used a Wiki yet?

(Byline says Connie but it’s me Heidi talking.  I need to change users so that I could add to the wiki series.)

A while ago, Connie and I introduced you to Wikis. Have you found a use for them yet? We have and I wanted to share with you. It’s rare that I share my personal side but Connie keeps telling me to give in and share, so here it is a personal story from me with how we used a Wiki and what it led to.

First of all, Connie and I live over 200 miles apart. We talk a lot and say goodnight to each other every night over instant messenging, but we only see each other a few times a year. But a few years ago, we came up with the idea of doing scrapbooking weekends and invite family/friends to come with us. After planning these a few times, we are getting pretty good at it. The first times we met in hotels but found we were space constricted and ordering pizza for all meals isn’t realistic. Since then we rent places that have full kitchens, multiple bathrooms and many bedrooms. So besides planning when, where, who, we also have to plan what to bring for scrapbooking supplies and meals. The first few times, Connie, myself and my mother-in-law had a zillion emails going back and forth planning meals and who brings what groceries. The second time, we planned meals and the person that drove the least did the grocery shopping for all. This time we have eliminated the emails (or the majority of them) and created a wiki to organize our weekend. Take a look: http://mnscrapretreat.pbwiki.com/ We are finalizing plans since we are going next weekend (in 6 days, yikes better get packing.) So everyone in our group has worked on the menu although the drinks list got finished first for some reason. I need to go finish up the grocery list and double check that all the items are there for the grocery shopper.

And this leads into another story. My mother-in-law was one of the people in the group helping plan and use the above wiki to plan our scrapbook retreat. At her work, they are starting a collaborative project and an idea to use a wiki came up. She was thrilled that she knew what they were talking about and explained that she was using a wiki to plan a weekend get together. My mother-in-law was promptly assigned the task of giving a report on how a wiki works. Needless to say, I got a panic email minutes after the meeting asking more about wikis. I replied that I was laughing at her! My next reply was giving her Wiki 101. I told her what wikis to look at and how to set one up in a particular wiki service, PBWiki. By that evening, she had one setup and was playing with it. A quick phone call to walk her through wiki basics do’s & don’ts and she is off and running. She has put together a wiki to present at work, added sample content, including photos and videos. Has played with the voice chat feature. And this is from a lady who less than a month ago was introduced to a wiki and replied “Yep, I figured it out!! It just proves that you can still teach an old dog new tricks!” Good job Peggy!

So hopefully I have given you few examples on how to use a wiki and inspired you to try it out. Anytime you have a bunch of email going back and forth between multiple people, this maybe a signal that a wiki is needed. Be creative. There are some cool tools out their on the internet and if you use them it can make things simpler!

Subscribe to the comments for this post