A little over a year ago, the wiki community was treated to a new video by the folks at Commoncraft explaining how to use “wikis in plain english“. The video was based off a great essay by Lee LeFever on using a wiki to plan the perfect camping trip.
Now, for most of us, early November is hardly the time to be planning a camping trip – brrr… However, it is a great time to start thinking about and planning your holiday party or event, and a wiki like AboutUs is an equally great place to organize those as well.
As explained in the video, using a tool like email is not good at organizing and coordinating a group’s input, and while Web 2.0 offers great tools like eVite for coordinating the who’s coming, where and when for a party, we often find that there is an element missing – enter the wiki.
Beyond knowing who’s coming to your party, a wiki can be used to organize the important details like what you have, what is needed and who’s bringing it. We’ve all been at that party with too much food and not enough plates. Or too many seats and not enough tables. Heck, what’s a holiday party without everybody bringing the exact same dessert – oops.
By planning your holiday party on a wiki, you can start a list of what you need (food, beverage, tables, etc) and have your party goers self-organize on what they’d like to contribute, even if it’s just showing up. In addition, your party goers can provide feedback and thoughts as the planning happens. Someone might suggest and organize carpooling or designated drivers or provide a link to the rule of a new game they’d like to play. With a wiki, the opportunities for organizing are vast.
To start, you’ll need a wiki, like AboutUs. If the party is for your company, consider using the AboutUs page for your company, creating a link on the company page to the page you’ll be planning the party on (say, YourCompany.com/Holiday2008). Similarly, if it’s just a party for you, consider a link off your “personal page“.
Over the next couple of weeks, invite people to your party and explain that you’ll be using a wiki to organize the party. If they’re new to wiki, you might show them the Commoncraft video or point them to a Wiki Tour that’ll give them the basics. Of course, since wikis are easy to use, they’ll be up and editing in a manner of minutes.
Once your party goers are on the wiki, you can use it to post party updates on “talk pages” as well as link to other information, like the AboutUs pages for the event site and a great party supply store in the neighborhood.
Using a wiki to organize your holiday party can help ensure it goes smoothly, and also provides you a starting point for your next party, be it in a few months or next year.
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A friend just brought up another good reason for organizing your holiday party via wiki – we’re all fallible. She recently sent out an email about a holiday party for her organization, and typed in the wrong date. Someone caught the mistake and sent out another email (to everyone on the list) asking “is this right?” She then sent a third email to everyone to correct her boo-boo. With a wiki, you update changes (due to human error or change of plans) in one place, and since everyone can edit, it can happen a lot faster and with a lot less headache.
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