Play in the SEMLS Wiki Sandbox
Since you are already fairly familiar with the Zoho wiki software, I'm going to use a different service for this week's exercise. I have set up a Wiki Sandbox using PBWiki. They came up with the name for this service with the idea that creating a wiki is as easy as making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. This is your play area, and I encourage you to try adding all different kinds of stuff to the wiki to see what it can do.
Exercise:
- The wiki is available at http://semls20.pbwiki.com. The password to make edits is semls.
- In this wiki, we are going to share our favorites with each other. Start by clicking on the Favorites Blog link and add a link to your blog there. This will just let us know that you made it to the wiki.
- Click on some of the categories already listed on the main page, edit the page, and add your personal favorites to the list. You don't have to add favorites for every category; just the ones you feel comfortable with sharing.
- Now it's time to come up with your own category. Go back to the main page where the categories are listed. Click the Edit button and add a category. You will then need to create a link to the new category page:
- Highlight the name of the category.
- Click the Link button in the editing toolbar.
- In the Link Type box, keep WikiPage selected.
- In the Link to WikiPage box, keep new page selected. Click OK.
- Save the page.
- Click on the link for the new category you just created.
- Because this page has not been created yet, it will ask you to name the page. Keep the name that is in the box and click Create New Page.
- You will immediately come to an editing box where you can add favorites for your new category. Save the page.
- Take a look at some of the information included in the Page Information and Wiki Information areas at the bottom of your page. Notice how it shows you when the page was last edited along with a link to the history. Check out the wiki settings to see what you can adjust in your own wiki. Feel free to change the wiki skin.
- Don't just add text to the pages. Feel free to add images of your favorite things or try some of these cool things you can do with PBWiki.
Optional Extra Credit Exercise:
Once you are done playing around with the Wiki Sandbox, you're ready to join the greater wiki community. For this optional exercise, consider contributing to an existing wiki. We are all an expert in something, and this is your opportunity to share your expertise with the greater community. You may already know of a wiki where you can contribute, or you can try one of the following:
- Find an article in Wikipedia for a topic on which you are knowledgeable. Every town in Massachusetts has a Wikipedia entry that you might be able to add to, or maybe there is another interest area you can contribute to. Add something to this page.
- If your library has a digital collection, follow the University of Washington Libraries' example and add links to your digital collections to relevant topics in Wikipedia.
- Share a success story from your library on the LibSuccess wiki.
- Post a comment to this page telling us where you contributed. Did you like contributing? Do you think you'll do it again?
