Even though I belong to several listserves, I only have time to closely follow a few.  One is the SLED (Second Life Educators Forum) because of the work that Heidi and I are doing with my class and NMC.  I have managed to put that in its own folder, saving my inbox from tons of posts.  The second list serve that sneaks into my inbox (just because I have been to lazy to set up a folder) is Online Faciliation.  Usually the posts are too corporate for my needs but one recently caught my interest.  The author shared a link that discusses the idea of a personal wiki – an idea that I have been meaning to explore for some time.  Dennis Kennedy writes:

And, even though this goes against the grain of the “collaborativeness” associated with wikis, I’ve long been interested in personal wikis. They seem that they could be a tool for personal knowledge management.

My sense for wikis is that you need an “easy enough” wiki tool and, most important, a project about which you are motivated or which gives you a clear personal benefit for which a wiki makes sense. Ideally, this would be a small and simple project where ongoing changes are required. I could see doing a book project, certain research projects…

The author makes a good point that our “bio” or “about me” page is often out of date, sometimes by 2-3 years.  The easy editing feature of the wiki (and blog) will allow our web presence to stay current – see Rick Klau’s CV as a great example.  Another great example is Jo Kay’s wiki (another SL resident) – I really like what she has been able to create with a free wiki tool. 

My problem is that I have 3 server spaces with content about me (here, Columbia, and Seton Hall).  I would love to combine them all into a wiki space for an online portfolio – my problem is how to make mediawiki, which I just installed, to look nice.  I have to carve out some time to play – as soon as I get something presentable I will be sure to share.  Still have to work on a new snazzy banner…