#2 PBWorks Wikis

PBWorks.com is one of the most popular wiki creating sites out on the web now. One reason people like PB wikis so much is because unlike like other wikis out there, you don't have to download any software. All you do is sign up for an account, pick a page name, and you're in. In fact, the "PB" stands for Peanut Butter because the company's schtick is "so easy you can create a wiki faster than you can make a peanut butter sandwich."

To test out PB wikis, I decided to set up my own. I pretended that I was making a wiki for a public library's employees so that I could showcase some of the ways that libraries might use a wiki. You can check out the wiki here: http://acmepubliclibrary.pbworks.com/ , but it's "read only!"

That brings up a good point about wikis. Wikis aren't really meant to be "read only." In fact, that's the major feature that separates wikis from other websites. A wiki is a site that anyone, (who's invited to,) can edit. This may be a site as big as Wikipedia, where anyone from the public can edit, to a site as small as 4 co-workers organizing a work project. Wikis are meant for collaboration, making them a big part of the Web 2.0 wave. The other distinguishing factor of wikis is that they're meant to be fast and easy to edit. In fact, wiki means "fast" in Hawaiian, where the term came from. Many wikis accomplish this by having a "WYSIWYG" bar, which stands for, "what you see is what you get." (Pronounced "wizzy-wig.") A WYSIWYG bar shows up at the top of a wiki page while you're editing and has familiar editing tools like those you'd see in Microsoft Word. This means suddenly anyone can be a web page editor without having to know complicated programming codes like html.

Overall, I found PB wikis very easy to use. The WYSIWYG bar makes it easy to edit and to create links. It's also very easy to upload files like images. If you're on a wiki with a ton of pages, you can star particular pages you want to remember. You can also add tags to different pages. There's sidebar you can edit for easy navigation around your wiki, as well as a recent history insert, which you can click on to see more history. There's a few neat plug-ins you can add to your pages, such as a calendar or embedding a YouTube video. When you sign up for a wiki, you're asked what you're using the wiki for, such as for a classroom. There was actually a "library" option so I went with that one. Based on what you select, your wiki comes with some pre-formatted page options you can use when creating new pages, such as a "Meeting" page or a "Project" page. It then makes it easy to just fill in info, or you can tailor the pre-formatted version to your taste.

When you sign up for a PB wiki, your front page automatically comes with links to Help features. There is a manual or also 30-second training videos, which I found extremely helpful. There was a couple clunky features in the PB wikis. For example, there's a few different ways to go about creating a new page and then creating a link to that page and it's easy to get confused. Also, you're supposed to be able to change the Heading of your wiki and the Title of your pages in settings, but I could never get my changes to save.

Overall, PB wikis are really easy to use and can be very useful for classrooms or organizations or employers like libraries. When I asked after my presentation how many people had used a PB wiki, nearly everyone raised their hand. After creating and using one on my own, I can see why they are so popular!