Crisis stations everyone. It's the end of art journalism as we know it (András Szántó, Arts Newspaper), perhaps even the end of art book publishing ( Jamie Camplin, Arts Newspaper).
The Smithsonian has gone all wikified for the creation of its Web and New Media strategy process.* I'm still a bit of a wiki sceptic, I'm afraid - mostly because I personally find them a little daunting if they're not part of my daily routine. But I do think its smart the way the homepage suggests different things you can do based on the time you have available. The YouTube channel they've set up is small but worth picking through; here's video that's been uploaded, about - of course - Twitter.
And another wiki initiative, this one from the UK National Archives. On Your Archives people can sign up and start adding to the information known about collection items by expanding catalogue entries, transcribing digitised documents, or providing research guidance.
*Surely one of those business-case words is redundant?
Showing posts with label wiki. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wiki. Show all posts
Monday, 1 June 2009
Monday, 11 February 2008
Crunchy suburbs, logo buildings and pork chop lots
There's an interesting post on the Walker Design blog today, about the site they've built to accompany the Walker exhibition 'Worlds Away: New Suburban Landscapes', which 'demonstrate[s] how the American suburb has played a catalytic role in the creation of new art'.
First off, the post is interesting because the writer talks about both the tech specs of the site (which incorporates a wiki - more about that later) and about how the designers worked to make the design of the site and the print publication sympathetic and coherent - not just visually, but by trying to make a similar reader / user experience. I'm not sure that the outcome is very successful, in terms of the site being a bit hard to control and navigate, but it's interesting to see this attempt at a consistent approach on a large-scale project.
The site includes essays, artist bios, a selection of videos loaded to YouTube by visitors / interested people, and a lexicon of terms, which is an editable wiki (think Wikipedia). It's this last one that I find really interesting (and where I got the words in this post's title).
The lexicon grew out of the curators' research for the exhibition; they found a lot of great words and phrases that had been invented / adapted to describe suburbia and urban design, and rather than just let them go to waste when they didn't fit into the wall panels, they're printing them as a lexicon in the publication. They've also loaded the terms into this wiki, where the definitions can now be edited by anyone, and further terms added. So - here are the definitions for crunchy suburbs, logo buildings and pork chops.
I really like this idea. When you research a show or an essay, so many beautiful small details have to be dropped, due to word limits, or to simplify narratives, or simply because they are small details, and and you need to concentrate on getting the big ones across. It also gives a sliver of insight into the kind of things that curators do when preparing shows. Yay for the Walker, again.
First off, the post is interesting because the writer talks about both the tech specs of the site (which incorporates a wiki - more about that later) and about how the designers worked to make the design of the site and the print publication sympathetic and coherent - not just visually, but by trying to make a similar reader / user experience. I'm not sure that the outcome is very successful, in terms of the site being a bit hard to control and navigate, but it's interesting to see this attempt at a consistent approach on a large-scale project.
The site includes essays, artist bios, a selection of videos loaded to YouTube by visitors / interested people, and a lexicon of terms, which is an editable wiki (think Wikipedia). It's this last one that I find really interesting (and where I got the words in this post's title).
The lexicon grew out of the curators' research for the exhibition; they found a lot of great words and phrases that had been invented / adapted to describe suburbia and urban design, and rather than just let them go to waste when they didn't fit into the wall panels, they're printing them as a lexicon in the publication. They've also loaded the terms into this wiki, where the definitions can now be edited by anyone, and further terms added. So - here are the definitions for crunchy suburbs, logo buildings and pork chops.
I really like this idea. When you research a show or an essay, so many beautiful small details have to be dropped, due to word limits, or to simplify narratives, or simply because they are small details, and and you need to concentrate on getting the big ones across. It also gives a sliver of insight into the kind of things that curators do when preparing shows. Yay for the Walker, again.
Friday, 27 July 2007
folksonomy, blogosphere, blog, netiquette, blook, webinar, vlog, social networking, cookie, and wiki
What do these words have in common? According to a British YouGov study, they are the web users' top 10 most hated words.
Blog and wiki are four-letter words - Guardian technology blog
I dredged up this Guardian piece, which is now a few weeks old, after seeing a post yesterday by Lee LeFever of CommonCraft.
Lee wrote about his friend Kevin Flaherty, of Wetpaint, the wiki platform I use for Free tools for free lancers. After seeing the 10 most hated list, Flaherty commissioned Harris Interactive to do a survey, comparing 'wiki' to the terms 'social network', 'blog' and 'online forum'. They found that:
The numbers really surprised me - if wiki and blog have such low recognition, then things like RSS are likely to be even lower.
I'm attempting at work to change this in a small way, through an idea called Byte-sized learning. Byte-sized learning consists of small, hands-on sessions, where staff pass skills and knowledge on to other staff who are keen to learn.
For example, I've run a series of half-hour sessions, teaching people how to set up and use Google Reader. More sessions are planned, on topics like social bookmarking sites, uploading images to Flickr, and using online services to deliver large files.
The dual aim of Byte-sized learning is to demystify Web 2 technologies, and to introduce people to tools that will help them do their work faster and cheaper. It's a small thing, but I think worthwhile.
Blog and wiki are four-letter words - Guardian technology blog
I dredged up this Guardian piece, which is now a few weeks old, after seeing a post yesterday by Lee LeFever of CommonCraft.
Lee wrote about his friend Kevin Flaherty, of Wetpaint, the wiki platform I use for Free tools for free lancers. After seeing the 10 most hated list, Flaherty commissioned Harris Interactive to do a survey, comparing 'wiki' to the terms 'social network', 'blog' and 'online forum'. They found that:
- 16% of the US online population are familiar with the idea of a wiki
- 35% are familiar with blogs
- 76% are familiar with search engines
- 97% are familiar with toilet paper.
The numbers really surprised me - if wiki and blog have such low recognition, then things like RSS are likely to be even lower.
I'm attempting at work to change this in a small way, through an idea called Byte-sized learning. Byte-sized learning consists of small, hands-on sessions, where staff pass skills and knowledge on to other staff who are keen to learn.
For example, I've run a series of half-hour sessions, teaching people how to set up and use Google Reader. More sessions are planned, on topics like social bookmarking sites, uploading images to Flickr, and using online services to deliver large files.
The dual aim of Byte-sized learning is to demystify Web 2 technologies, and to introduce people to tools that will help them do their work faster and cheaper. It's a small thing, but I think worthwhile.
Thursday, 26 April 2007
Free tools for free lancers
As part of my job (one of the best parts) I'm meant to spend an hour a day learning about web-related things. I wish that when I worked previously at an art gallery that I'd been encouraged to spend an hour a day learning about art-related things.
I started thinking about how I could merge the things that I was learning about online with the things that I'm interested in in my offline life. As a result, I've started work on the Best of 3 wiki: Free tools for free lancers.
The wiki is designed to be a resource for freelancers, particularly freelancers in the visual arts. It brings together a range of online tools and resources, all of which I've had a bash at, and all of which are free, or have a free option. Currently, the resources range from services for sending large files to good places to find art writing online to a Plain English video that will show you how to start up an RSS feedreader to places to look for work.
Free tools for free lancers is hosted by Wetpaint, itself a free tool that lets non-tech people (like me) build their own wiki. Check out their site to see how easily you could be doing this. It's a great way to run long-term projects or work with communities of interest: The Association of Collaboration, for example, would be better served by a wiki than their current blog.
I'll keep adding content to Free tools for free lancers over time. Any suggestions, or requests to join the wiki, are welcome.
I started thinking about how I could merge the things that I was learning about online with the things that I'm interested in in my offline life. As a result, I've started work on the Best of 3 wiki: Free tools for free lancers.
The wiki is designed to be a resource for freelancers, particularly freelancers in the visual arts. It brings together a range of online tools and resources, all of which I've had a bash at, and all of which are free, or have a free option. Currently, the resources range from services for sending large files to good places to find art writing online to a Plain English video that will show you how to start up an RSS feedreader to places to look for work.
Free tools for free lancers is hosted by Wetpaint, itself a free tool that lets non-tech people (like me) build their own wiki. Check out their site to see how easily you could be doing this. It's a great way to run long-term projects or work with communities of interest: The Association of Collaboration, for example, would be better served by a wiki than their current blog.
I'll keep adding content to Free tools for free lancers over time. Any suggestions, or requests to join the wiki, are welcome.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)