Week 3 - Firefox and Addons

I've experimented with any number of browsers. IE, Flock, Chrome, Safari and Firefox. Though I had been using Firefox exclusively about a year ago I settled on using Flock at work and Safari at home. (Because suddenly, every time I had to load a new page in Firefox at work I had to type in my password, and at home it got really slow.)

I'm glad to have an excuse to try Firefox again. I love it. My favorite bits are being able to have multiple rows of tabs open, keywords for searches, determining where tabs open, and control L. I'm big on customization. I'll have to give it an extended preview to see if I run into roadblocks of compatibility like I did the last time I tried to use it at work.

Customization and versatility will become increasingly important in all software we use. The ability to tag bookmarks is fantastic. As the amount of accessible information grows the need for users to organize that information in a way that is meaningful to them becomes vital for success.

Week 3 - Wikis

Apparently, I forgot to blog about week 3.

So, wikis . . . I find some wikis extremely helpful and others nearly pointless (even if they shouldn't be). The key to it all is organization and standardization. Otherwise things end up being a hodgepodge of links and articles that no one can find. There are some library wikis out there like that, but I'm not naming names. The other issue is ease of access.

For the past year I was responsible for migrating information from an independent PBWiki to our state wiki. Before that I had created a wiki for the children's services of our large system using Google Sites. (There's an example of a Google site here.)

The idea for the system wiki was to share information, cut down on those pesky emails asking if anyone had a frog puppet to lend. However, the site is rarely used with the exception of a couple of people. I have a couple of theories as to why. One, it required a Google Account to access. (Even when we provided a general account for everyone to use the matter of remembering the login proved a roadblock.) Additional roadblocks including little to no training for staff and the fact that it was not part of our intranet. I have to admit I've quit using the system wiki for very much, because there's not information there I didn't add.

The use of the children's wiki picked up a bit when we posted our summer sample crafts and program ideas to it. What would you do to promote use of an internal wiki?

Training for wikis is pretty straight forward, after all, if you can write up an email or type a word document you can contribute to a wiki. I find the most difficult step is insuring there's a core architecture to the wiki to facilitate navigation.