Of all the "things" so far, I think that wikis might be the most versatile tool yet. These started as pretty straight forward tools for collaboration. But it seems that you can build a fairly complete/complex website with these.
I am intrigued by the possibilities for using them for training and as a knowledge repository. Image an Epic Wiki that we could all use to add what we have learned as useful tricks and ask questions where the community could answer. This would be so much better than email chains. In fact, thinking specifically about how to use wikis to decrease internal email would be a useful project on it's own.
I built a wiki on wikispaces for a group project several months ago. The results have been mixed. Initially, I was the only one who posted info. (People would hand it to me at the meeting or send documents on email) It took weeks for all to get signed up as authors (one team member didn't do it until at a meeting, we logged on and walked her through it).
Now, there are team members who use many of the features when they post, others who write comments and edit and others who read, but no edits.
Has it been helpful? Well, there are no minutes to keep track of and that is great. All the info is available from anywhere, anytime you are connected to the internet. We get work done and reviewed between meetings.
We have added other interested people, who are not on the workgroup, as users on the wiki, though only 2 have posted. Others have been given the link, but it is hard to track if they are looking at it.
I will certainly use wikis again for projects. In fact, I have another one planned...
This time, I will add one of the tutorials on youtube, for people to use a place to start.
I will use the group to set up the initial wiki organization (so it makes sense to all, not just me).
And I will try another wiki host, maybe one that focuses on business collaboration.
And I'm going to keep cruising for examples on the web.
Or, better yet, just set up a workgroup of 8Thing graduates!
Time spent: 3 hours
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