Wikis

This week we are learning about wikis. The lesson began with a short sweet and very understandable video from Common Craft. I've consulted Wikipedia countless times, so the only purpose of a wiki, as I understood it, was a place to access a dictionary/encyclopedic blurb on a topic. The Common Craft tutorial, however, showed how a group of people could use a wiki to work on a common task (IE. a camping trip).

Our assignment was to sign up for a PBworks account and then add a 6 item list (on the subject of why I love my library) to the wiki created by the 23 Thingsnat folks. After scrolling through a long stretch of individual postings, I began to wonder how a post on a wiki was any different from a comment on a blog. I re watched the video. Upon returning to the wiki, an urge to get a bit creative hit me. I didn't think that editing any one's post would be polite, especially since most of us do not know each other and any such unexpected tampering might be misconstrued. I decided instead to suggest a slightly different spin: Why I love libraries (the big picture). I only listed 2 things instead of 6 & invited others to add to the list. I'm curious to see if any one runs with my suggestion.

RSS Feeds

In this week's assignment we are to (a) choose a newsreader, (b) sign up for an account and (c) suscribe to at least 1 feed. I've seen the RSS icon on blogs and other websites I've visited. The idea of suscribing to them for automatic updates makes perfect sense to me. Using a newsreader to do this is a new concept to me and I am not sure how to go about it.
I've reviewed the comments posted by participants on the 23things blog and have learned the names of at least 3 readers: My Yahoo, Google reader and bloglines. I opened my yahoo account and clicked on the My Yahoo tab but was overwhelmed by the sea of info presented there. I will instead maybe try to google some of the terms to see what I can find.

So Many Questions

I like to research things before I leap. So diving in and playing with a blog wasn't fun for me. It was tramatic. What if I do something wrong? I'm already noticing that my e-mail address is up in full view on this create a post page. Does it show up in the actual blog? Should I have created an alternate account?

Here I come kicking and screaming into the blogosphere. I have had more anxiety about this seemingly simple assignment for week 2 of the 23 things than you could imagine. 100 other people have already jumped in and are enjoying the water, while I've been trembling at the side of the pool...
So, this is the 21st century?