The way of the wiki

I know it was mentioned by Meredith and others that wikis were great resources that were underused, but now that I have spent the last two weeks seeking wiki software for my library's liaison program, I'm a believer.  It's ironic that the wiki week was the week I didn't post (this is my make-up post) because the wiki has become my favorite part of the social software course.  First and foremost, wikis are more versatile than blogs and more manageable than html pages.  Unlike blogs you can have a "home page" and keep the most important pieces of information front and center.  Blogs rely on navigation bars and links to get to that kind of information.  Secondly, it promotes collaboration (the ultimate goal) and allows the host to see who is doing what on the page.  Without knowing html.  Without using Dreamweaver.  Without trying to create style sheets.  Without trying to create the perfect table.  I'm all about the wiki.

So far my two biggest wiki challenges are acceptance and branding.  I have requested MediaWiki because it is so customizable.  I think this will happen eventually because our web librarian has just loaded WordPress on our library web server.  I think some people may wonder why I need a wiki since they gave me a blog, wanting both is just greedy, etc.  I think I will have to change my proposal to better explain the difference between wikis and blogs.  The second issue is branding.  Our wonderful, kind web librarian has also taken up the cause of adding the library headers to our blogs, but I don't think that's possible with MediaWiki.  And many people are not used to using a wiki.  I'm not quite sure how I am going to make it a comfortable space that is easy to navigate AND relates to the rest of the website.