Wicked Wiki

The rise of Wikis in the early 2000s signaled a poignant change in the way information is created in the web. It promotes collaboration, openness and egalitarianism. Thus, freedom of speech and expression has never been this good. The growth of liberal thinking and scholarly approach to the creation and communication of information online was at a rapid speed. It seems that Wiki, Hawaiian word for fast, is living up to its name.

Read a typical research paper or report done by a grade seven student and you'll find Wikipedia in the list of references. How the information in the Wiki was used and if it was critically evaluated before using it on the report is another matter though. The popularization of Wikis, made with all the good intentions, could have draw backs and disadvantages for the young learner. Reading print encyclopedias is one thing and using Wikis is another. Now that's a digression.

The point is, Wikis serve their purpose and for good reasons too. Allow me to name two examples of locally made Wikis that has substantial content and designed well enough for easy navigation.

One is the PAARL Wiki where current and relevant research on librarianship could be found. A good number of professional articles, PowerPoint presentations and studies by scholars of the discipline from abroad are linked there, but a majority of Filipino Librarians' works are featured too. Its list of essays and scholarly papers is comprehensive. It nearly covered everything under Library and Information Science. So who ever said that Filipino librarians are lesser writers should visit the site and reckon on this. What's more, it has a directory of its member institutions, seminars, fora, awardees and news about Philippine librarianship in general. Blogs by librarians, local and international ones, are an added treat. True to its adaptation of the Wiki spirit, its developers and writers are professional and licensed Filipino librarians who are not paid for the articles they write for the Wiki nor for the time they devout in developing it.

Call it an advocacy. Call it a mission. In my book, I call it passion. Passion for the profession and the growth of Philippine librarianship.

And then there's WikiPilipinas by Vibal Publishing House. I only have two words for this wiki -- impressively ambitious. It tries its best to cover as much topics on Filipiniana, Filipinos and the Philippines. Not bad for a start since there is a dearth of printed Filipiniana materials in the market. I'm speaking from the school library context. Perhaps WikiPilipinas could fill this need. Maybe not entirely. It's worth going back to the site to extensively explore its contents.

In the age of bytes and wikis, content is still king.

Scribd

I'm counting the many social networking sites I subscribe to -- Friendster; Hi5; Multiply and of course, Facebook. Apart from these, I'm also in Flicker, Slideshare, You Tube and Photo Bucket. I have more than two email accounts and I keep a slew of mailing lists and e-groups of varying interests. This goes to show that a sliver of my life has been allotted to Internet technology and the many perks it offers.

And it seems that I have not exhausted all it's treasures, and, trash as well.

Just recently, I discovered Scribd when a faculty asked for Hemingway's The Old Man and The Sea. It's a book read in high school so, we could not offer the print version. To go the extra mile, a library staff checked the database of the high school library. I checked Google. Google gave me the e-book version through Scribd.

One needed to sign in for free to view, read, print, upload and download documents. In my initial walk through of the home page, it appears that a wealth of information is right there for the picking. Original works from poems to essays, plays to novels are also available. The website provides a list of topics and subjects linked to documents in pdf. and ppt.

I'm still new to Scribd so there's a lot to explore. Check the link and do your own exploring!