Learning about wiki’s was interesting, and creating one was kind of fun. I had used Wikipedia before, but I had never really thought about how it came to be. What was most interesting to me is how dynamic a wiki is. I find it a bit fascinating that anyone can edit the pages of a wiki, that in fact it’s the point of such a site to get the community active with participating in its creation. Prasarnphanich and Wagner described this concept as “collective authorship” in the article, “The Role of Wiki Technology and Altruism in Collaborative Knowledge Creation”.
While it was relatively simple to create a wiki page, the process leading up to its completion was not so smooth. My partner, Laura, was great and had an open mind to my suggestions. However, we both had such busy schedules it was difficult to connect on a regular basis. We communicated through email, and instead of “phone tag”, we played “email tag” a lot. While the point of a wiki website is to work together in sharing knowledge for others to see, unless you have an interest in the specific topic of the page I can see where you could lose your enthusiasm. It was strange trying to find a topic that we both liked when we did not even know each other.
Laura and I changed our topic from the one stated in the last assignment (placenta art). I didn’t have any images for it and we had thought of doing a wiki how about it. I think that topic is one where images are needed to be effective. After browsing BufWiki!, I noticed there were not a lot of pages on there, so I thought of what we could add. We ended up creating a page on Bufwiki! about a specialty gym I go to which is located in North Buffalo.
As I write this, I am a little frustrated because the assignment was to create a wiki article of at least 1,000 words. Laura and I did that. However, when I just checked the site I noticed that our page is totally edited already! It is completely condensed from what we created. There was so much more on our page last night.
This seems to be the opposite of what Prasarnphanich and Wagner, in their article, “The Role of Wiki Technology and Altruism in Collaborative Knowledge Creation”, explain as wiki magic. Wiki magic, according to Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia co-founder, is a cumulative effect of incremental knowledge contributions. The article explains how someone may start a wiki article with just a few sentences in the evening, then by morning there may be several additional paragraphs created by others. In our case, we had created several paragraphs in the evening, and by the next evening they were practically gone!
I guess I am not yet accustomed to the “wiki way”, explained by Prasarnphanich and Wagner as a shared code of conduct within the community when collaborating for wiki content. I am only just beginning to get my writing and ideas out on paper through the journalism program at Buffalo State College, and the concept of having to let go of the control or ownership of what I create doesn’t come easy yet. Particularly when I am surrendering to a bunch of “editors” unknown to me.
As with all things, over time I am sure I will get used to this new concept of “cooperating” and “collaborating” with virtually everyone. I hope that however, the changes made will not affect our grade too much.
Below is a link to our BufWiki! page
http://buffalo.wikispot.org/Stokes_Fitness
Below is a link to a site about how to use a wiki for group planning. Includes a video.
http://www.commoncraft.com/video-wikis-plain-english
While it was relatively simple to create a wiki page, the process leading up to its completion was not so smooth. My partner, Laura, was great and had an open mind to my suggestions. However, we both had such busy schedules it was difficult to connect on a regular basis. We communicated through email, and instead of “phone tag”, we played “email tag” a lot. While the point of a wiki website is to work together in sharing knowledge for others to see, unless you have an interest in the specific topic of the page I can see where you could lose your enthusiasm. It was strange trying to find a topic that we both liked when we did not even know each other.
Laura and I changed our topic from the one stated in the last assignment (placenta art). I didn’t have any images for it and we had thought of doing a wiki how about it. I think that topic is one where images are needed to be effective. After browsing BufWiki!, I noticed there were not a lot of pages on there, so I thought of what we could add. We ended up creating a page on Bufwiki! about a specialty gym I go to which is located in North Buffalo.
As I write this, I am a little frustrated because the assignment was to create a wiki article of at least 1,000 words. Laura and I did that. However, when I just checked the site I noticed that our page is totally edited already! It is completely condensed from what we created. There was so much more on our page last night.
This seems to be the opposite of what Prasarnphanich and Wagner, in their article, “The Role of Wiki Technology and Altruism in Collaborative Knowledge Creation”, explain as wiki magic. Wiki magic, according to Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia co-founder, is a cumulative effect of incremental knowledge contributions. The article explains how someone may start a wiki article with just a few sentences in the evening, then by morning there may be several additional paragraphs created by others. In our case, we had created several paragraphs in the evening, and by the next evening they were practically gone!
I guess I am not yet accustomed to the “wiki way”, explained by Prasarnphanich and Wagner as a shared code of conduct within the community when collaborating for wiki content. I am only just beginning to get my writing and ideas out on paper through the journalism program at Buffalo State College, and the concept of having to let go of the control or ownership of what I create doesn’t come easy yet. Particularly when I am surrendering to a bunch of “editors” unknown to me.
As with all things, over time I am sure I will get used to this new concept of “cooperating” and “collaborating” with virtually everyone. I hope that however, the changes made will not affect our grade too much.
Below is a link to our BufWiki! page
http://buffalo.wikispot.org/Stokes_Fitness
Below is a link to a site about how to use a wiki for group planning. Includes a video.
http://www.commoncraft.com/video-wikis-plain-english
I never had really looked at wikipedia as a community before this assignment and I found it very interesting when I read that it was 150,000 volunteers who started it up. I found it very intriguing that that many people who come together for a similar goal.
ReplyDeleteI just checked out your Wiki page and I think it's great!I can see why you'd be a little frustrated that people have already edited it, especially because it had to be a certain length, but I guess it's a first hand experience as to how Wiki's work.I think we were all in the same boat when it came to this whole project. It was a great learning experience!
ReplyDeleteI like you wiki page a lot! I work at a gym off elmwood and i'm still getting to know other gyms in the area. I find it so interesting the amount of work and energy that goes into physical training. Thanks for the information!
ReplyDeleteHi, I just came upon your blog here and would like to provide some feedback on your experience.
ReplyDeleteThe Buffalo Wiki is a community guide which allows the community to share information about Buffalo and its surroundings. Every page is immediately open to editing and conformance to site standards. An exception is granted for pages placed under each Users Page.
The wiki is not a commercial site and limits the business listings to basic Neutral Point of View information - not major copies of material already available on the business's website. The standards are outlined on our "Putting Your Business on BufWiki" page.
The main wiki pages are also not a good place for class projects, because they are subject to editing and application of standards. We recently added a BufWiki Guide for Teachers & Students to explain how the wiki might be used for classroom assignments.
Each "wiki" will have its own objectives and rules of the road - Wikipedia, for example, has some very extensive standards. Automated robots and editors police the standards.
We welcome you to BufWiki and appreciate having new business pages added to BufWiki and will help make them fit in with our standards.
Please jump in and add some information aobut Buffalo resources you think are worth sharing.
Thanks again for sharing.
BuffaloBob Wiki
http://buffalo.wikispot.org/Users/BuffaloBob