Web Site in a Rush: H1N1 threatening, EdReady goes up fast

If a pandemic or other significant event made it difficult or impossible for your students, staff, or teachers to physically attend school, how would you make sure that communication and education still take place? This is the question looming for educational institutions nationwide, given the potential of the H1N1 virus to disrupt or even close schools this year.

Building a “learning continuity” plan is no small task, but can be made much easier when you have the ability to share ideas and strategies among other organizations. When I was asked to quickly build a Web site, EdReady, that would help schools function in case of a pandemic, I knew immediately what 2.0 tool I would use: a wiki.

Given the sheer size and complexity of the preeminent example of the application—Wikipedia—it’s easy to forget that wikis are one of the best and most simple ways to collaborate on the Web. As Adam Frey, one of the founders of Wikispaces, says, a wiki is just “a Web page with an edit button.” A blog, with its inherent chronological structure, would have been difficult to organize, and a static site doesn’t allow for widespread collaboration. But a wiki was ideal.

The core simplicity and speed inherent in wikis meant that I was able to purchase the EdReady.com domain name, create the site and its basic framework, tweet and blog that it was up and available, and post contributions from two schools—all within a couple of hours.

To me, this is a great example of the power and potential of the collaborative Web to change our lives for the better. Now, EdReady.com also boasts a set of online readiness assessment questionnaires; federal and state government planning documents; actual school plans; a page for news updates; and lists of links to other resource sites, articles, discussion forums, and videos. We’ve even added a Twitter account, and, at the request of the U.S. Department of Education, separate pages for vendors and other organizations to list their emergency products and services for quick reference.

Three years ago, nervous and a little scared, I started my first wiki. SupportBlogging.com ended up being profiled in this very magazine. Since that effort, I continue to appreciate the power and capabilities that wikis provide.