In Lisa Sporo’s book
review of Scholarship in the Digital Age:
Information, Infrastructure, and the Internet by Christine L. Borgman, she
brings attention to scholarly communication among professionals and researchers
through wikis. OpenWetWare is the example that is provided, and although the
content isn’t from my field, its purpose really makes sense to me. “OpenWetWare
is an effort to promote the sharing of information, know-how, and wisdom among
researchers and groups who are working in biology and biology engineering”
(OpenWetWare, n.d., para. 1). The wiki has categories such as reference
materials, organisms, courses, protocols, and contributing authors that
individuals or groups can access. I think this is an excellent way for scholars
to easily share their research and for those in the field to utilize as a
resource and to stay abreast of the abundance of research.
Main Page. (2014, June 20). OpenWetWare, . Retrieved 05:02, July 27, 2015 from http://openwetware.org/index.php?title=Main_Page&oldid=798279.
Spiro, L. (2009). Review of the book: Scholarship in the Digital Age: Information, infrastructure, and the Internet, by C. Borgman (2009). Literary and Linguistic Computing, 24 (2): 243-245. doi:10.1093/llc/fqn041
This is a really interesting use for a WIKI... much like the open research data bank that Loni posted in the General Discussion forum yesterday. I've only used WIKI's as a collaborative workspace for creating and editing documents. The example you've given seems almost like a library of resources or a community for biologists.
ReplyDeleteYes, Wiki's are great "water coolers" for researchers. I also have used a wiki with two colleagues to co-author a conference paper -works great.
ReplyDelete