Free wikis for communities

BBC News is reporting that Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales is "launching a service offering free tools for people who want to build community websites." It is named Wikia.

There are, of course, some criteria and limitations: your wiki must "have a large potential audience and be likely to attract enough editors to maintain the wiki," and in most cases you are unable to be selective about who can contribute.

Interested? Information on starting a wikia community is provided here.

Making my list and checking it twice

I am having too much fun with a new list wiki that Amazon has created, and wondering how libraries could use it. They have named it UnSpun (beta).

The interface is smooth and pretty intuitive -- lots of Ajax so things fade nicely in and out as you write or save.

List sampling:
Most Powerful Character in the TV Show "Heroes," Favorite Quote from Your Mom, and the Best Things about Public Libraries.

Scratch your librarian/geek/listmaking itch and check it out. I am happy to say I created the first 3 lists for Tucson, AZ and one entitled "Best Book to Read a 3-Year-Old Child before Bedtime."