Wiki-ing for Chartership
OK, to begin with, I must confess that I’m a bit of a technology geek. I like all the new Web 2.0 developments, the social networking and the collaborative working. Which was why I decided to attempt to collate my Chartership portfolio materials by using a wiki. I know it’s not the way that everyone would like to use, but it’s the way I chose to do it, and I’ve learned a lot during the process of the good and bad points of Chartering on a wiki. And what’s the fun of blundering about online if you can’t share your highs and lows with others? I used Peanut Butter wiki (http://pbwiki.com/) for my materials, so the information in this article relates specifically to the PB Wiki setup, but is also relevant for wikis in general. Although it’s not possible to submit your Portfolio electronically, a wiki can help you get ready for paper submission in a lot of ways.
Reasons to be wiki’d, one, two, three….
Well, to start off with, Chartering seems to create MASSES of material: official guidelines, supporting documents, first, second and third drafts of everything, to-do lists, random witterings to yourself… turn your back for a moment and it seems to breed into disorganised piles. The reality of it is that most of this stuff is just a hard copy of materials already available as Word documents, or printed out from websites. Getting all of this into the same format and available in the same place is a big step towards getting it organised and being able to assess it for relevance and value. This was my main motivation for getting it all onto a wiki. Below are some of the other good reasons for wiki-ing.
• Your wiki is accessible anywhere, so you can work on it at home, in work, in a public library, in a Starbucks if you have wi-fi…
• Multiple users can access the wiki and edit it. This means your Mentor can go in and scan over documents, and leave comments for you. You will be emailed when any edits or changes are made to your pages.
• You have the option of sharing your wiki others by making it public and getting feedback from those who can only read your material, or keeping it private and accessible only to those you allow.
• Your documents are protected by SSL protocol, meaning your sensitive information is secured against unauthorised access.
• You can attach files and documents to pages, or store them in a file store.
• You can see the dates when you uploaded documents, which gives you and others accessing your wiki an idea of when these documents were last worked on.
• Each wiki page also gives information on when it was last edited, again, giving you an idea of what stage of development materials were left at.
• You can use templates to create different styles of pages for different uses such as a FAQ, research page etc.
• You can easily create links to internal as well as external pages.
• You can create slideshows, pdfs and Word documents of your pages.
• You can index your pages, hide them, link to them, lock them….you have the power!
But, as with anything else, there are downsides to using a wiki too:
• The free version usually allows admin access only, which allows editing and deleting of pages. Be careful who you give this password to, as one mistake on their part could ruin hours of your hard work!
• The formatting is not standard: font sizes are not in point sizes, but ‘small, medium, large’ etc. This can make it difficult to meet some of the requirements for portfolio submission, such as the use of minimum 12 point type.
• The fun features such as smilies can be distracting: they won’t feature in your final Portfolio submission, and can be a waste of time.
• The option to create pdfs / slideshows/ Word doc from selected wiki pages can sometimes have strange results, and formatting can be very bizarrely wrong.
Start off right!
So, to begin, choose a wiki provider to host your materials. There are many of them out there, have a browse around and see which one takes your fancy. Most personal use ones are free of charge, so it won’t hurt to set up a few accounts and test them out to see what suits you best. Give your wiki a name, and store the details safely somewhere – you really don’t want to do all that hard work and then be locked out or unable to remember its address!
I would also advise that, if you’re going to do your Chartership on a wiki, do it on a wiki from the start. I started transferring materials about half-way through my process, and regret now that I didn’t begin on a wiki. I still have masses of printouts lying around that are now duplicated on my wiki, in a more current version! Word documents can be pasted into a page, but it will change the formatting somewhat unpredictably (eg text being randomly bigger or smaller than normal). I would strongly recommend writing your materials in your wiki pages first, and then paste them into a Word document later, to allow you to check font sizes, and tweak the formatting before printing out. Word is much more user friendly for those sort of activities!
Wiki-ing along
Next, you have to organise the structure of your wiki…shouldn’t be too hard, we’re librarians, after all, so I’ll just give you a few hard-earned tips!
Your wiki will always open on its Home page, like a website. To help you organise information quickly, use your Home page as an index page. As soon as you create a new page, even if it’s totally blank, create a link to it on the Home page. Forgetting to do this can result in duplication of pages, and will leave you wondering why it looks different from the way you’re sure you left it, and why half the work you’d done has frustratingly vaporised. Yes, that is the voice of experience speaking! You can put the links within a table, as a list…whichever way suits you. I did learn however that too long a list means you have to scroll down the screen to see all your links, which can be frustrating, so it’s probably best to begin with a table.
Use the CILIP Framework of Qualification materials and sample Portfolios to help you decide what sections you’re going to need, and create wiki pages to match these requirements. Name the pages intelligently, as you’re going to need to find them by those names to be able to create a link to them on the Home page! Paste the relevant info about each topic onto the tops of these pages. It’ll not only help you to keep on track for meeting the requirements for that area, but it’ll allow others who you may invite to view your materials for feedback to understand what criteria you’re trying to meet.
Make separate pages for each document: you’re very unlikely to run out of space on your wiki, so make full use of it. It will also make it easier for you to create a slideshow of specific documents if they are available as individual pages.
Create a “To-Do” page: not only will it help you keep track of what you’re meant to be doing and when, but it’s very satisfying to be able to score out completed items!
Copy and paste your finished pages into Word, to tweak the formatting and make sure it’s in an acceptable size for printing out and submitting eventually. Save them in the file store area for ease of browsing. Also, as your wiki won’t have a spellchecker built in, pasting into Word will often highlight small spelling mistakes that would otherwise slip though the net.
It can be helpful to occasionally create a slideshow or pdf of your work so far: it’s a nice and easy way to view all your materials as a group, without having to be responsible for the destruction of a significant part of the Amazon rainforest by printing it all out!
Submission time!
So, if this all works as it should, you’ll have a nice, easily navigated, indexed wiki, with individual pages for each document, and a Word backup of each of those stored in your file folder for easy printing and collating when your Portfolio’s ready to be submitted. Hopefully, you’ll now be able to get that final draft bound and posted off with the minimum of stress about organising the contents at the last minute!
Now, that’s me just about exhausted what I’ve learned about Chartering on a wiki. I’ve edited, collated, had feedback, re-drafted….all I need to do now is actually submit my Portfolio. Wish me luck!
Jennifer Findlay
Assistant Librarian
Semple Fraser LLP