This week was very interesting. I have been familiar with Wiki-type media for some time and have used various wikis (including to my great shame -pedia) in the past. I have never edited one as I have little knowledge to add, or am not an expert in any field. I need not rant about the inherent horribleness of wikipedia, but is it fun to so I will. As a cataloguer a quick look at wikipedia can (i.e. it is possible) give me just enough cursory knowledge to proceed to classify a book, though I always have lingering doubts. If I want something substantive I use actual resources as discovered by reputable search tools rather than just a Google and the Wiki. I might (as radical as this is) look in the book or books, or a bibliography, or a library catalogue, or an index. But for the quick fix, the tabloid view, the hardly referenced, ad hoc, junk food form of information wikipedia will do... maybe. As for other uses of wikis I can see considerable benefits for collaboration, information exchange and such like.
I have used Google Docs fairly extensively almost as soon as I had Google account. I have found it extremely useful not having important documents confined to one PC, or have many drafts or old versions of the same document cluttering my computers, this particularly applies to my CV and other docs that need continual updates. I would recommend Google docs for the ability to collaborate on documents and for the easy conversion of these documents into PDFs, .docs and so on.
SlideShare is something that I am very impressed with as well. I do not see immediate use for the tools on SlideShare but I can see the great potential for it uses, as already demonstrated by its use in 23 Things blogs.
Thinging for this week a complete success. Though I might add my disapprobation at the instruction sheets. They are often as clear as mud to follow, particularly for beginners. I often get through with trail and error and ignore the sheets.
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