wikiHow and How to Deskunk Your Dog

According to their introductory tour, “wikiHow is a collaborative writing project aiming to build the world's largest and highest-quality how-to manual. As of this minute, wikiHow contains 56,674 articles. We are read by tens of millions of people from multiple countries every month making us the most popular wiki after Wikipedia..” I can believe it. It is populated with practical, as well as entertaining, how-to wiki articles. After browsing several categories I recognized an article that I felt qualified to edit.

One of my dogs had a short encounter with a skunk at 2 AM Saturday morning. This is not my first experience with the skunk versus dog aftermath. Tomato juice and those commercial remedies from the pet store don't work! The deskunking method I found on the internet at 2 AM is so much better! The wikiHow site had a How to Deskunk your dog article which also included the same deskunking solution. I felt confident in adding a little more information to the article because of my recent experience. The editing feature at wikiHow was easy to use.


How to Deskunk Your Dog

Wiki Wiki What’s the Hurry

I've been browsing in Web 2.0 Wikiland. Of all the communication formats I've encountered on the Web, wikis are the most difficult to navigate. I have found that most, but not all, wikis are very poorly organized; with what appears to be little attention given to design and screen layout. It’s like the the person who designs the wiki site is just following their personal stream of consciousness to organize. You know . . . they put in one category, their cell phone rings, and by the time they get back to the wiki, they forgot where they were. Then they remember something else that needs to be added; and wherever it's convenient to place it on the screen is where it stays. Oh my gosh! Some wikis don’t even have a content list, or primary tool bar at the top of the screen. What's the hurry? They need to slow down long enough to organize the site! What are they thinking!?

I could give you some examples, but I'd rather provide examples of well-designed wiki sites. I think that the State of California Best Practices wiki does a good job of organizing their site. All the navigation and resource page links are to the left, and their main seven subject areas sections are prominently displayed on the main content area of the main page. Then once you are on the secondary pages there are bread crumbs to help you find your way back through the levels to the main page.

My second example of a well designed wiki is wikiHow. In addition to having a nicely organized and clean look, it is also very entertaining. It is worth a look.

I spent a very long time looking for other good examples, but this is all I could come up with. Help me, have you seen any well designed public wikis? I'm not talking about popular wikis, I'm talking about good visual design and well thought out organization.

Technorati Blogosphere

I'm exploring the ways that tagging effects traffic to blogs and websites. I understand that Technorati is a huge community of users who share tags and streamline the process of searching blogs through special tagging tools. I'll let you know what I find out. I'm in the process of claiming my blog at Technorati and becoming a apart of the Technorati blogosphere. I've already tried out their blog search feature, and I like it better than Bloglines so far.

Technorati Tag: 87u95xck3s
87u95xck3s

Online Community Building

I just read an old (2002) article at oreillynet.com. The article made several main points that I believe are true for science and research sites, or for any other site for that matter. Since the science information organization where I work is just now exploring the addition of social media to it's Web products, I think that the nuggets from the article will be good to keep in mind.

You must know why your site exists
If you can't clearly describe the purpose and content of your site, how will you know if you are succeeding? Worse yet, how will visitors know if they want to join the community? When stating the site purpose, keep the description as simple and as direct as possible.

Users draw other users
As the community leader, or evangelist, it is your job to attract users. Being search engine friendly, submitting links to other sites, and word of mouth are just the beginning. “As a group, your most active users will draw more users than you will. An active user group exudes a sense of community. This attracts people who enjoy the company of like-minded individuals and seek the social rewards of participating in a healthy peer group. People like to fit in, and it takes making several new relationships to produce this impression.”

Users will surprise you
“Community members will continually surprise you, especially if you've never really analyzed an online community before. The issues and themes you find important may never really resonate with your users. They'll latch onto and chase down ideas you've never found important or even knew existed.” You know you've been successful when users start to express a sense of ownership. Eventually their contributions will begin to out weigh your own. As with any other group, or workplace I've ever participated in, you will never be able to please everyone. When you have a critic among your midst, take it with a grain of salt. Just keep in mind that “Some of the best contributors listen and think far more than they speak or type.”

I'd like to add a personal observation here. The science community is loaded with introverts (including me). We are not as prone to comment as would the more social extroverts that you might find gabbing away on Facebook and MySpace; but once we feel at home, you might be surprised at how much we have to say. That is what online communities are about; feeling comfortable enough to let others know what you really think.

Delicious Bookmarking is Fabulous!

I have now saved my browser bookmarks into Del.icio.us, and I think it is a great way to store professional bookmarks for reference. I also like the idea of bookmark sharing. I checked out the bookmarks of one of my co-workers who is also on our organizations Web 2.0 Innovation team. The only thing I found difficult in finding team member bookmarks was that I needed to know their Delicious user name. I took a guess on his, and I guessed correctly.

I really like the tagging features! I especially like that the site will give you tag suggestions based on what other users who have bookmarked the same link have used.

Even though I'm still green behind the ears, because of my willingness to explore, I've already found some content that I believe will be helpful on future projects.

Social Networking for Research Scientists

Since I work on websites designed not only for the public, but also for research scientists, I decided to take a look at where the research scientists might be networking on the Web. I found several sites that seem to have potential:

epernicus.com
mendeley.com
researchgate.net
scispace.net

One of my personal favorites is one for which I created the interface design. It is one of the best resources I know for research scientists.


E-print Network

ROLLYO Search

Experimenting again today. Went to Rollyo.com, created a search with a few of my favorite web design sites, and placed my personalized search on my blog. I'm anxious to see how it works out. If you are a graphic designer who is designing for the Web, you might find it useful. Try it out.