communication for building rapport with the community. In recruiting participants for the

wiki, I placed newspaper advertisements in the Seminole Tribune and visited one of the

Seminole Reservations and the Seminole Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum. I expected that these

efforts would provide enough valuable Tribal contacts to form a pilot group for

participation. Yet, this progress emerged at a much slower pace than I anticipated. The

five-hour commute to the Big Cypress Reservation prevented frequent visits on my part.

There are staff policies at the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum that restrict the dissemination of

Tribal member contact information without project approval by senior Tribal member

museum staff; therefore, I had to recruit individuals on my own. However, I found that

by spending the day with staff members at the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum I was able to

explain my objectives for the project and convey my respect for the cultural knowledge

which the Seminoles would share on the wiki. On my second visit, during the American

Indian Arts Celebration, I had the opportunity to speak with one wiki contributor and to

meet other community members and artisans. These visits proved essential for

encouraging community buy-in for the wiki project.

Partnership-Building Recommendations

      In retrospect, I can see that more face-to-face interaction would have provided

the chance to develop stronger rapport with a wider range of community members, thus

enhancing participation in the wiki project. To offset the limited amount of on-site

contact I had with the Seminole community, I decided to extend the length of the wiki

comment tool from two months to fourteen months. I anticipate that the extended

timeframe will allow for richer feedback, because of word-of-mouth advertisement

through the community. I recommend that future wiki administrators initiate contact with