Moving on... please join me on the Riverdale Park Wiki

I've enjoyed writing about some of the issues that interest me -- and, in some case, others as well -- about our lovely town, and posting them to this blog. And I've certainly enjoyed hearing from many of you that you've read some of it, and thought it was worthwhile -- the positive feedback has been great. But increasingly I've felt that a "blog" was much too personal to accomplish what I was actually interested in doing... I believe that what we need is a good wiki for all things Riverdale Parkian. So that is where I'm going to be putting my energy now, not this blog.

I assume you've read something on Wikipedia, the free, on-line encyclopedia, at least once or twice? A wiki is a cooperative, all-hands-on-deck website that is constantly under construction. And unlike in the Outer Limits, where they are in control, in the Wiki World, we are in control. Read something and know it to be incorrect or incomplete, or out of date? Don't mutter to yourself -- change it! Edit! Rewrite! Add a paragraph, or a whole new page! Find some information on recycling that you think everyone in the town could benefit from? By all means, post it to TownTalk. But -- and this is what led me to the wiki idea -- TownTalk (or any email list) is so ephemeral. Read it today, forget it by tomorrow! So, instead -- or in addition -- put it on the wiki, and it's there for good, for you or anyone else to return to at any time.

I see the Riverdale Park Community Wiki as a combination bulletin board, Welcome Wagon, soap box, scratch pad, photo album, scrap book, file cabinet, encyclopedia, yellow pages, Rolodex, 'Whole Earth Catalog,' entertainment guide and community center. This is not, "Build it and they will come." This is "Build it -- and let's use it!"

(Have you seen the Hyattsville wiki? They've done some great things over there -- much good information that is useful to anyone, certainly anyone in our area.)

So, see you over on the RP Community Wiki? --Dwight