The Wonderful World of Wikis

For our service learning project, we decided to look at some other wikis to get an idea of what is out there. I have to say, that I saw some really impressive things. I like working with wikis. We learned how to write in html code in 401 and I have attended a few workshops for using various webpage building software, but I had never even felt remotely comfortable creating webpages. Wikis are different. They are so easy to use! However, I thought the the trade-off was a very "plain jane" looking site. Now I now know that this is not so. There are some excellent, very visually appealing wikis out there. What I find truly amazing is that I first worked with a wiki just three years ago. The level of sophistication was much lower and that is where I developed my opinion that wikis cannot be pretty. I know technology is moving along at a nice clip, but the rapid pace that improvements are being made in the realm of social networking technology still manages to astound me. The examples I have seen have shown me for one that the page formatting possiblities are much broader than I had imagined. Plus, to reference an earlier post: the widget possibilities are amazing and several are offered for free. The free part just blows my mind! We have spent so much time being constantly warned about the dangers and depravity of the Internet, that it is hard to believe that some are creating this cool tools and then just giving them away for the good of everyone. It's nice to see a creative endeavor that was made to help, not just for a profit. Some of the more tradtional arts have lost that spirit. Now I find myself wandering into the area of copyright, so I will end this here before things get ugly.