I mentioned PBWiki’s new editing interface a few weeks ago, but this week was the official launch of this tool. I truly think that having a WYSIWYG editor like PBWiki has now is going to break down the biggest barrier to adding content to a wiki. Wiki markup may be easier than HTML for some people, but it certainly isn’t as easy as your word processing program at work. This truly makes it as easy as anything you normally do online. The folks from PBWiki have created a screencast showing how the new editor works. I know when I was at Wikimania last August, I heard that MediaWiki will also have WYSIWYG functionality sometime in the future. That will rock!
In addition, PBWiki now allows people to integrate all sorts of widgets into their wiki, including calendars, chat widgets and videos (this blog post has some more info).
And speaking of PBWiki, if you are coming to Computers in Libraries this year or know anything about the Crystal City area, please add your knowledge to the CIL2007 Wiki! Because of the location change of CIL this year, there isn’t nearly enough local info available on the wiki. So if you have any knowledge of that area, please consider contributing!
I think this is great news. Even though I am proficient in HTML, I have to say, one thing that put me off from adding to wikis is the whole tag thing. I guess I’m lazy – it’s certainly not that I couldn’t figure it out, but I often just felt like I didn’t want to have to learn yet another set of code – no matter how similar it is to HTML. You know? So, cool, I’ll definitely be checking out more PBWikis from now on.