Poster

UCLA Informatics Wiki: Extreme Makeover Wiki Edition

Alessandra Brophy, Jill Detrick, Monique Escamilla, Grace Lau and Jean-François Blanchette.

Defining "informatics" proves challenging. In general, informatics definitions are broad and do not incur specific meaning until applied by particular informatics communities. These broad definitions can complicate how the value of informatics is promoted both within informatics communities and to the "outside" world.

Blogs, wikis, and other forms of online social networking act as valuable information channels as well as virtual "places" to interact with like-minded individuals. In particular, a wiki can promote self-definition through community discussion because all members can add and edit content. Four UCLA Masters of Library and Information Studies students grappled with defining "informatics" with the intent of clarifying the definition for themselves and fellow students. Under the guidance of Professor Jean-François Blanchette, we developed an informatics wiki to facilitate collaboration, democratic contribution, and interactivity. We came to realize that the wiki had the potential to extend beyond our physical community to become a resource for the global informatics community similar to how the STS Wiki functions as a resource for the global science and technology community.

We conducted a usability study made up of student and professional members of the IA community to assess the navigational methods employed in our wiki.