#18 Wikis

Happy new year to you all readers! After a hiatus over Christmas and New Year I am back to work again to bring you the thrilling conclusion to 23 things. Today's topic: Wikis, and more specifically Wikinorthia. Let me explain Wikinorthia. Wikinorthia is a co-operative project between Yarra Plenty Regional Libraries, Moreland City Libraries and Darebin Libraries to collect and record online a cultural and historical encyclopedia of the local region - Melbourne's northern suburbs, as told by the local people themselves. A great idea, the first of its kind in Australia. It contains all sorts of interesting vignettes of life in the area. I particularly enjoyed looking at the street names section, seeing the origins of some of the names and nostalgic recollections of some of my suburbs more rural past (before my time). I wished to add something about the origins of my street's name, but alas its origins and meaning remain lost in the murky mists of time, so I had to content myself with correcting some typos in another article. Wikinorthia is a great idea, to bring something local to the vastness of the world wide web, but I can't help but feel it could be marketed better. Wikinorthia is after all a somewhat opaque title which doesn't tell the casual observer much about its aims or content or even catch the eye, which is a pity. This project is a great way for local people and community groups to tell their stories and make them heard and this is the direction in which the promotion should move. Wikis are, after all perfectly suited to this purpose - a voice of the people. Local historical societies could also be tapped for information, content and photographs. I will follow progress of the project and await further devolpments with interest.