Working with Wiggio

A while ago I wrote a blog entry on wikis, specifically WetPaint Wikis.  One major reason that people use wikis is that they can provide a centralized place to work on committee or group projects.  While wikis are extremely versatile and can be used for multiple purposes, they don’t generally have an inherent structure which means that someone has to carefully set up the structure much like one would build a website.  If you need a centralized place for group work and want something even easier than a wiki, Wiggio is the place for you!  Unlike wikis, Wiggio was created with the specific purpose to facilitate online group work and contains many additional features that wikis don’t provide.

Wiggio incorporates a variety of social technologies into an easy-to-use shared web portal.  Next time your committee needs a shared online space, simply set up a Wiggio page and invite members of your committee to the page.  You’ll be able to not only share links, documents, polls, and a calendar, but Wiggio also gives you a variety of mechanisms to communicate directly on or from the group page.  Wiggio allows group members to leave typed or voice recorded notes for each other as well as easily send email or text messages to group members directly from the group page.  Wiggio also incorporates virtual meeting software into the group page so members can chat online, hold a teleconference (at a phone number provided by Wiggio), and even have a virtual meeting with full screen and document sharing,  as well as webcam capabilities.

Wiggio seems to run incredibly smoothly and with the exception of Java for the virtual meeting presenter, does not require any additional software.  Best of all… Wiggio is completely free!  That said, Wiggio does contain sponsored links and states on their FAQs that they will be adding additional “premium” components that will require a paid membership.   Try it out with your committee work, suggest it to your students for group projects, use it to co-author your next article- Wiggio is a great technology for any collaborative work you might have.   Overall, I highly recommend Wiggio.

Wetpaint Wikis for Libraries

Wetpaint Wikis

Have you ever wanted to create a collaborative space online or simply a basic web site, but don’t think you have the technology skills to do so? Try Wetpaint (www.wetpaint.com), an extremely easy to set up, easy to use wiki program. Don’t know what a wiki is? Don’t worry! The word “wiki” is Hawaiian for “quick,” but it is also very easy! We’ve all seen the world’s largest wiki, Wikipedia, and understand it as a website that anyone can edit or create pages (encyclopedia entries). Encyclopedias are not the only things you can create with a Wiki- you can also create:

• A committee or department collaborative space online– why send emails back and forth when everything can be in the same spot?
• Library instruction web page for students– engage your students with active learning and ask them to add to the page
• Subject guides – easy to collaboratively create and update
• Subject liaison site– add chat, RSS feeds and other interactive tools to your page
• A staff training portal – learn from each other by having both questions and answers in one spot
• A place online to collaboratively work on a project or share ideas.
• Just about anything you’d want to make a webpage for, but with more collaborative capabilities and without needing to have technical skills.

Wetpaint is one of the many web-based platforms you can use to create a wiki. Wetpaint Web based wiki allows you to:

• Easily create and update pages

• Choose from a variety of designs and add your own header image

• Have a variety of permissions settings- possible to assign roles to each user/ creator (editor, writer, administrator, etc.)

• Choose who has access to your page (open to the public or select people)

• Use an easily navigable website design

• Remove ads if your wiki is used for educational purposes

To set up a Wetpaint wiki, go to www.wetpaint.com and choose to create a free site. You will then be asked to name your site and choose the web address of the wiki. You can then choose the level of openness and collaboration of the site by choosing who can edit your site. Next you’ll be able to choose the design and look of your site. That’s all you have to do to get started! Once you start adding to your site, you’ll notice Wetpaint’s option to add widgets to the page. This allows you to easily add things like Youtube videos, an instant messaging chat box, RSS feeds, polls, pictures, audio, and much more. If you need more help setting up your Wetpaint wiki, check out these useful videos:
Wet Paint Wiki How To Part 1
WetPaint Wiki How To Part 2