Cooperating with wikis

In the article "Blogs, Mashups, & Wikis, Oh My!" Bruce W. Dearstyne observes that as of the article's publication in 2007, the term "Web 2.0" does not have a solid formal definition. This statement seems to be the case even today, in 2011. Many people have a general idea of what Web 2.0 is, that it involves the user's input and participation more than the traditional Web before it. However, when asked to define the term, it is possible and probable that each source will provide a slight variation on that basic premise.

I like the variety of examples Dearstyne provides of companies and industries who use Web 2.0 in their daily internal operations. When asked to name an example of a Web 2.0 application, many people would first say "Wikipedia." However, these examples demonstrate that the practical uses of Web 2.0 extend beyond the realm of librarians and information professionals, with evidence of blogs and mashups in use by institutions ranging from Northwest Mutual to the Chicago Police Department.

Dearstyne also raises some important issues that information professionals should consider when managing Web 2.0 tools. Based on the issues mentioned in the article, it seems that it would benefit a library or other institution to have a central "point person" for one or more of the Web 2.0 tools used. Other staff members should be aware of at least the basics of the tools and should be able to contribute appropriately to the social media (internal wiki at a company, for instance). However, this "point person" would have a more extensive knowledge of the tool(s) they are responsible for and might have primary responsibility for keeping them updated. For instance, a library might have one particular librarian who is responsible for updating the library blog. This person would collect comments and ideas from staff members for blog content but would physically be the one to add the post to the site. Also, other staff would know to turn to this person with any questions they might have about the Web 2.0 tools.