Case Study: Constitution Day

Wikipatterns – Table of Contents

A Conversation with Tom Hillhouse, Web Services and Marketing Manager
National Constitution Center – Constitution Day Website
Philadelphia Pennsylvania, USA

The National Constitution Center is an independent, non-partisan, and non-profit organization dedicated to increasing public understanding of, and appreciation for, the Constitution, its history, and its contemporary relevance, through an interactive, interpretive facility within Independence National Historical Park and a program of national outreach, so that We the People may better secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity. The Constitution Day website serves as a directory of resources from multiple partners to help citizens celebrate Constitution Day, the birthday of our government on September 17th.

Why did you choose a wiki?

We needed a system that would allow us to quickly publish resources to a website, and enable partners and non-technically minded people to add and edit these resources.  Essentially, we are using the wiki as a community oriented content management solution.

What type of wiki are you using?

Web-based, publicly acessible website running Atlassian Confluence.

How are you using the wiki?

Through a permission based wiki, a structured meta-data system, and a templated design, we are able to allow partners to add and edit their own resources as they see fit.  An administrator monitors the process and makes adjustments as needed.  The general public uses the website as they would any other site;  they can browse, search, and download these resources.

Which wikipatterns are in use on your wiki?

Use WYSIWYG, Scaffold, Overview pages, One wiki space per group, Invitation.

What changes have you seen as a result of using a wiki?

We are able to distrubte the tasks of maintaining content, and are able to empower users to take control of their own content.