Exploiting The Potential Of Wikis
JISCMail Survey

About This Page

An online survey was set up for the "website-info-mgt" JISCMail list in order to guage demand and areas of interest for a Wiki workshop. The findings are summarised below (note they have been edited slightly to remove irrelevant comments).

Results

One-day Wiki event 8% response rate (47)

1. Would you be interested in attending a one-day event on Wikis?

2. What is your preferred location

3. Comments on location

• London would be best for me.
• I would prefer a southern location outside of London
• The UK includes Northern Ireland, not just Great Britain. Why should we always have to pay for flights?
• Ideally North West location
• central
• Central London - availability of hands on lab work
• North preferably - e.g Leeds, Manchester.
• I am based at Cranfield (Milton Keynes), anywhere within a couple of hours from here would be considered.
• Manchester, Preston or Lancaster would be best
• Easy rail access.
• There is no chance at all of being allowed to attend if it involves an overnight stay.
• London is easier than most other places in England to get to from here (Glasgow).
• London a lot easier for a day trip, but not much use for colleagues in the north...
• none: except if it's too expensive to get there for a day, am unlikely to attend
• London would be my preference, but perhaps there should be a number of roadshows across the UK accompanied by an online conference.
• If it is a one-off event it needs to be somewhere that is easily accessible to people from as many areas of the UK as possible, without excessive travelling or overnight accommodation being required. Ideally near to a mainline train station and with good train service(and if possible near to good road transport as well)
• Good train connections are essential.
• Easily accessible by public transport would be best and easiest. Central London therefore best venue.
• Closer.
• Somewhere in London - what more can I say?!
• near Sheffield, Manchester or Leeds
• Central Birmingham is as good as central London for me, but I can't select two options in Q2.
• Ideally ease of travel from Bristol
• Preferably in London!
• London/Kent
• Nothing too flash, but somewhere that works well for the purpose (I have recently been impressed by UEL's facilities adjacent to Cyprus DLR for horseshoe layout, and English Heritage in Savile Row - close to Oxford Circus - for lecture format).
• as based in south west, can't travel too far for 1 day event
• Would prefer Manchester as that where I am normally based, but would consider other locations that are easily accessible by train (e.g. London, Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow)
• Anywhere outside London would be helpful.
• SW?
• London OK too
• If not in Central London then within easy travelling distance from Central London
• South of England
• prefer NW!
• London is relatively to get to from South West but Birmingham is just as good. But will go anywhere where there are decent travel links from Bristol.
• I be struggling to do one day north of Yorshire or west of Somerset
• Either London, Birmingham - or somewhere in between (how about Oxford?!) would be great!
• Good central location - University site?

4. Suggestions on content

• How are universities using wikis? With staff? With students? For external users too (such as alumni etc)?
• Comparison of software
• - Install and configuration of wikis
  - setting user roles and permissions
  - content verification issues
  - Encouraging wiki use
  - Using wikis with forums/blogs/cms'
• http://itsoc.mgt.qub.ac.uk/Teaching+Awards
• Setting up your own wiki, uses of wiki's, case studies...
• How to install / maintain wiki
• Use of Wikis in practical contexts - eg workplace teams
• I would be interested in case studies of real uses.
• Examples of how WIKIs are being used. Possibilities for the future.
• Possible uses of Wikis at a university, policing content, backend technology and any other issues that may be relevant
• Case Studies and Technologies
• Use of Wikis for teaching, learning and assessment. Use of Wikis for organisational communication.
• Applications, practical experiences.
• trust issues; pros and cons of different software; how to get a critical mass of content
• Case studies on how and why institutions are using wikis.
  Advice how use the free software that is available.
• overview and case studies would be be particularly useful
• Include online demonstrations of existing practice, e.g. on how wikis can be used within a University context.
• It would be useful to focus on a range of tools - wikis, blogs etc - and how they have been successfully used in different educational settings.
• 1. examples of how Wikis being used - Case studies, good practice etc 2. Suggested/recommended Wiki software 3. Issues with running Wikis and how to overcome them 4. How to ensure usability and accessibility is maintained
• Case studies. Legal implications. Actions for UKOLN and JISC to consider.
• - Pros and cons of different forms of Wikis - MediaWiki, PmWiki, ...
  - How people use Wikis currently: what they do, why they are using a Wiki, how do they feel it contributes to their jobs ...
  - When to use a Wiki and when not to use one
• The use of departmental wikis in archiving and developing collaborative shared content. Also effectively using Wikis as an addition to an educational intranet.
• Case studies - who is doing what in HE. Comparisons of wiki software. Cost-benefit
• both technical and discussions about the appropriateness and cultural issues for their use in HE
• apparently, I must answer this
• Search for "Best of breed" amongst Wiki's
• Types of wiki, enterprise solutions, managing a service across and organisation.
• Some examples on how it is being used - there must be many angles. Also, how to encourage it's use where appropriate. And then how to manage, and run multiple instances without IT overload.
• Security, reliability, integrity, veracity, trust, ownership and responsibility. We need to approach the ethical/legal aspect as well as the technical. Costings: we must be able, after such an event, to cost the operation of such a service. This must encompass the setup costs and ongoing maintenance and development.
• integration with other corporate systems (ie search, authorisation) positioning : blogs vs wikis vs web sites
• - choices of software (plus costs)
  - examples of use both in and outside of learning context in HE
  - what policies should be in place
  - how to encourage engagement
  - the fit with learning environments
  - problems, obstacles (to include solutions)
• - Effective use of Wiki's in teaching and learning - using Wiki's for student recruitment
• *Psychology/Sociology of wikis e.g. 'The Wisdom of Crowds' effect
  *Relationship to Web 2.0 technologies/methodologies
  *Feed formats and their uses: RSS/RDF/ATOM
  *Wiki Platforms eg. JSPWiki
  *Blog integration eg. Weblog Roller
  *Social Networking relationship ie. massively distributed collaboration.
  *Basic Wiki Syntax
  *Add-ons to Wikis: filters, plugins etc... (eg. Mindmapping software)
  *Managing Wiki Spam
  Authentication and Authorization
  *50 basic ways to use wikis, a functional guide
  *Getting started in 30 minutes, a guide to getting your own Wiki
• The obvious really:
  - Case studies
  - What to avoid
  - Maybe an example of an early adopter and where they are now, if their usage of wikis has changed over the years, and how
  - Future gazing for wikis
  - Issues with providing wikis as a university-wide service: authentication, legal issues, durability etc
• mediawiki brain storm & top tips, suggestions for getting people to use wikis
• Perhaps go broader than just Wikis - include other collaborative text-based environments. E.g. can Writely be used as a Wiki?
• Useful use cases on Wikis
  Use of Wiki's in the business environment
  How Wikis fit in with work with other Business systems or Information Management type systems e.g. EDRM (Electronic Documnets and Records Management), Web Content Management, other internal (or external) company web sites, Enterprise Content Management etc.
• Setting up a wiki managing a wiki
• as per your email
• Relation between wikis and Intranets when do you use which? Rolling out wikis to institiution and implications for support
• - review of the software options and their strengths and weaknesses - review of uses, in particular their embedding into business/learning processes - think about developing guidelines for best practice
• Use of Wikis for IT/Technical staff Use of Wikis in teaching/learning - how to set this up and support academics in its use.
• Examples of wiki use, technical considerations, user education

5. Other comments, suggestions, etc.

• Set up a wikiwiki site to plan the event!
• Wiki network... people who can work on collaborative projects.
• tea & cake
• Nice to have some hands-on opportunities to use the software, for those of us with no experience in this area.
• I attended the wiki parallel session at IWMW, so would like to build on that. We're looking at using wikis for PDP purposes.
• see above
• Would be very interested in attending this. An event sooner rather than later would be much appreciated.
• As above.
• This is an area which could so easily be taken over by well-meaning amateurs, so costs are easily masked. Likewise, formal user requirements tend to be swept aside by those (usually technical) who "enjoy playing with the latest thing". In my experience, this does not do enough to ensure the quality of the end-user experience. Such requirements as style, readability and general usefulness are too often considered as "time-squandering frivolities", and we need to nip that notion in the bud.
• case studies?
• Should provide plenty of examples from the real world, especially business. Please get in touch, if I can help further [contact details deleted]
• cost? numbers?
• A wiki of how to's for a wiki...
• I'll do a session if you like Brian (subject to availability!!).