Why I Chose A Wiki For My Business

1. Why I Chose A Wiki For My Business A Study for Communication & Self-Expression in a Digital Age By Kendra Muckle

2. Giggles daycare needed a better way to communicate between staff and families

3. When parents are leaving often there isn’t time Most children in our program spend more than seventy percent of their awake hours each week with us. When I opened Giggles in 1996 we had three children from two families. We now have 24 children, 15 families, myself and 3 additional staff. More than a short conversation at drop off or pick up isn’t usually possible. The more I learned about social networking in this class I realized that it can help with our problem.

4. With so many choices I had to decide which social network would best fit our needs ?

5. The three main options I looked at were: facebook, blogs and wikis I eliminated Facebook because I wanted the site to relate to the day care exclusively. I felt if we used Facebook it would become more personal, people would be tempted to post like they do on their own page with each other. We want their input but our site needs to focus on the children.

6. A Comparison of…….. BLOGS (Cons) • Mostly news posts or people media • Usually one opinion or a series of scattered opinions • Adds one post at a time • Blogger is solely responsible for maintaining BLOGS (Pros) • Easy to use • Less concern regarding content (because you’re the editor) WIKIS (Cons) • Grows quickly • Requires more monitoring WIKIS (Pros) • Can determine who has access and to what extent • Parents can update lists such as: items needed, if they can chaperone trips and pass it along • Post pictures with some degree of privacy • Parents and staff can collaborate on certain pages such as: So funny I had to share this • Parents and staff can comment or make suggestions • Pages are easy to archive

7. A wiki was the best choice to meet our objectives A wiki is a web page that is easy to edit. You can share pages and create folders similar to Windows. Wikis allow you to upload documents, videos and pictures. They enable you to collaborate with one person or with hundreds globally.

8. Why wikis work well for businesses • Wikis provide a good way for businesses to obtain customer feedback • Information collected on a wiki can build a knowledge database • Everyone has a chance to offer comments and suggestions not just a chosen few • Often people who won’t speak at meetings are more likely to comment in this format • Wiki pages are easy to update • Wikis are an effective project management tool

9. They permit supervisors to track progress on tasks they have assigned • Wikis allow these tasks and reminders to be sent directly to employees email • They provide real-time collaboration • Wikis let you see which pages your customers and staff have accessed • Mostly they are good for businesses because they improve client satisfaction by making users feel as though they have an input

10. PB Works wiki • Founded in 2005 • They have over one million workspaces and host over fifty thousand businesses • They offer a basic wiki site which is free or additional legal, educational and business services for a monthly fee • There is no hardware or software to install • Pages are accessible by any web based system including Macs, Iphones, Netbooks and Blackberrys

11. Giggles will use our wiki pages to: • Develop educational goals for children in our program • Communicate upcoming events with families • Collaborate with families and eventually with other child care programs globally • Share news and staff information • Recycle and reuse objects for projects, clothes, baby equipment and other items families wish to pass along to someone who can use them • Remind parents of dates we are closed, field trip information, appropriate clothing for our activities, food allergies and our illness policy • share a milestone reached, laugh or just to feel connected ………visit us at gigglesdaycare.pbworks.com