Today NTEN had a webinar about twitter and I have a better understanding of how it is best used. More than 1 million people use twitter. I’m really looking forward to using it at the upcoming NTEN conference because that way I can read tweets from people who are in the same sessions I’m in or in sessions I’m missing at the moment or I can hear about where everyone is meeting after sessions for some great New Orleans food and drinks. For me one of the best ways to learn about technology tools is just to try them out so here it is late on a Friday night and I’m having fun updating my blog and scrolling through some strange and interesting tweets from everywhere in the world – of course I can’t understand some of them since they are in foreign languages.

Anyway, If you haven’t ever heard of twitter, check out this great video that explains it in plain English and shares one simple way to use it to stay connected with friends and colleagues and people with similar interests. Also check out my twitter page and this great radio discussion about “why twitter” that aired on On Point about a year ago.

As defined in Wikipedia (which is a wiki itself and a free encyclopedia that anyone can contribute to) A Wiki or wiki is a website that allows users to add content, as on an Internet forum but also allows anyone to edit the content. “Wiki” also refers to the collaborative software used to create such a website.

So here is how someone at the conference helped me to better understand the difference between a blog and a wiki. Blog entries are usually organized by date and bloggers don’t usually go back to old posts and change them — just as you don’t change an entry in your diary from last year. A wiki is a website and any part of it can be changed at anytime by anyone. An automatic log then tracks all the changes made and notifies all the wiki contributors that a change has been made to a particular page.

I found it very easy to use the Wiki. I created a page for the conference session that I spoke at, uploaded a PowerPoint presentation, and posted a few comments. The Wiki helped to create a tighter community of conference attendees and build a resource that attendees can use long after the conference ends.

Here are some links to articles I found about why use a wiki:

http://bird.net.au/bird/index.php?title=Why_use_a_wiki

http://www.usemod.com/cgi-bin/mb.pl?WhyWikiWorks

I’d love to hear if your organization is using a wiki and how you are using it. Post your comments here. And hope to see you at the NTC conference next year. I think some nonprofit staffers think the conference is only for tech geeks – wrong – it’s for fundraisers and marketers too and lots of fun!