We believe the success of Davis Wiki is a result of the vision we had as well as the tremendous effort we put in to bring that vision to life. We also believe this type of success is replicable, but it is by no means easy or necessarily obvious. We see similarities in the mainstream adoption of blogging as a new medium. Although the concept has existed since 1994, and many users kept online journals, there were few examples of successful blogs as we know them today, and it took many years and many pioneering efforts as well as the creation of specialized tools for blogging to establish itself as a different new medium. Wikis were invented in 1994, and it took until 2001 for the first truly groundbreaking project (Wikipedia) to be created, and several more years for it to get significant traction. Many community wikis look to Wikipedia for guidance and try to follow in its footsteps. However, we believe local wikis are something dramatically different, and Wikipedia's model is not the right approach. It is understandably difficult for new community wikis to reject the principles that have worked so well for the world's largest wiki, and to this day Davis Wiki is one of only a handful of successful local wikis that serve as an example of a better model for local communities.
To address the two specific examples of wikis, there are some clear differences between their approach to building a community resource and what we did in Davis as well as what we propose. The most glaring difference, even at first glance, is that both of these wikis use the standard, off-the-shelf Media Wiki software. This software is general-purpose and, while it is very popular, is not well suited to a local community wiki. By contrast, Davis W...
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...Each local wiki has to develop naturally to serve the specific needs and interests of the local community. While it is valuable to learn from other communities, it is a mistake for a new wiki to try to copy the content or organizational structure of a mature, successful wiki. Different types of content and organizational paradigms will be appropriate in different communities, depending on geography, language, culture, demographics, and the individual talents and interests of the contributors. It is important to let the character and values of the local community pervade the local wiki.
In recent years we have covered all of these points in conversations with community leaders and various interviews. For a good outside perspective on what made Davis Wiki a success, we recommend reading the Neiman Journalism Lab interview or one of the other articles, attached.
The Wikipedia Collective. (2010, February 22). Mark Morris. Retrieved February 28, 2010, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Morris
John Swales theorizes that discourse communities must meet six elements of shared criteria: commons goals, participatory mechanisms, information exchange, community specific genres, have highly specialized terminology, and members who possess a general level of expertise. For the purpose of this paper, I will analyze three of these components and observe how they function within the CPhT community. My analysis will emphasize the unique lexis that is necessary to function as a member of this community.
...ie, 31 (1) 27-49.Fallis, D. (2008). Toward an epistemology of Wikipedia. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 59(10), 1662–1674. doi:10.1002/asi.20870
Common knowledge is a great thing to have. Even though we speak different languages in the world, we can all still relate to the feelings that are brought out in Shakespeare's plays. Knowledge is something that almost everyone craves, and the more that everyone knows about a subject, the more questions are raised about it and more
Although I do suggest that I lack much experience with on-line communities, the work I have been doing in this English 305 class with DaMoo has begun to alter my feelings of dissociation with on-line communities. I can not continue to have the preconception that on-line communities are used primarily for entertainment unless I consider talking on-line about a web article with Michael Day's class solely entertaining. Simply being able to discuss readings, work, and ideas with students and teachers who are in Illinois while I am in a California classroom is both fascinating and helpful.
Wheeler, S., Yeomans, P., & Wheeler, D. (2008). The good, the bad and the wiki: Evaluatingstudent-generated content for collaborative learning. British Journal for Educational Technology, 39(6), 987-995.
To begin, I started by attending the annual informational sessions and researching information about Clark from the start of the
The best thing about Wikipedia is that it concisely provides topic wise systematic information on every topic for ‘short and quick reference’ of the summary on our search topic, a distinguishable and easy to note introduction. We also credit it for providing information in a very systematic and orderly manner and is quite too detailed in providing information and pictures on an article. Wikipedia is a good source for starting with basic information as it gives a summary in the beginning that almost gives the reader an approximate knowledge of what he is reading.
I started reading blogs when I was taking a class on digital media. As part of the class I was introduced to Lankshear and Knobel‘s (2007) The New Literacies Sampler. The sampler explained that the technologies we use and the social practices in which we engage are wrapped around one another, and the practice of blogging is a part of the newly emerging area of digital literacy. Blogging falls into the category of what Lankshear and Knobel (2007) term “new literacies.” New literacies do not solely have to do with new technology. Lankshear and Knobel (2007) state that new literacies must involve a paradigm shift, and, mainly, enable people to create and participate in ways they have not been able to do before
In the first paragraph, Jaron appeals to the pathos of the reader; he assumes that the reader is of the generation that has grown up in the digital age, thus they would agree that the most important aspect of the internet is the people who contribute to it. However, there is no reason to ever assume that. Some people may actually believe that user contribution detracts from what makes the internet a viable source of information. For example, if the internet were controlled by academia, it would most likely be a peer reviewed source of information. However, as it is, anyone can contribute information to the internet, which makes the internet not a reliable source for knowledge. We can see this in academia, which typically does not support the use of Wikipedia as an academic source, and Wikipedia is an encyclopedia that relies entirely on user contribution.
What is a blog? Blog is a web-based writing space, an online journal, a virtual forum; it's self-maintained web page that provide a list of links to other web sites along with comments and critics about the links; it's a site containing chronologically ordered information, both personal and impersonal. It's something new - something that will change the way we write just like the way the invention of paper and printing press have influenced our culture. There are many ways to describe what the blog is or what it serves, but a single word can contain everything that blog represents; and that is 'LINK'. This link can be as small as a bridge between a person to another; but what blogging software such as the Movable Type provide is a virtual community where people of all ages, gender, and race come together and share ideas, give feedbacks to opinions of others, and to interact in a well-mannered way. The easy access to internet will draw more and more netizens to the blogosphere, thus the network of the bloggers will be global in near future. Furthermore, unlike a one-way information route that a paper-based publication takes, bloggers will give, take, and also combine ideas to construct a multiple lanes of interactive information to be reached out to ears and eyes of the bloggers at first, then to the netizens and eventually the whole world at large.
The advent of weblogs as instruments of Web-based conversation shall surely increase the exchange of news-related and academic information; probably not to the extent that books or newspapers have, but certainly in an open and accessible way. Gradually as they gain in popularity, blogs shall transform the field of journalism from one of complacent reporting to a more competitive and less elitist industry. Motivated individuals, with the use of their personal blogs, shall weigh in on important and controversial topics related to politics and social issues. Similarly, separated networks of academics shall benefit from more convenient access in communicating their ideas across long distances, giving them greater opportunities to organize large collaborative projects. Although books and libraries shall continue to be the preferred and overwhelming choice of students, educators, and interested persons as a place for acquiring knowledge, weblogs, through the global network called the Internet, shall bring people ever closer together to inform the general public and to exchange technical and academic ideas.
My decision to organize the required information dates back only to a few weeks. I classified the research sources that I could use into three types: videos, web portals and books. I then decided to use only one resource from each category. I used Youtube to vie...
WikiLeaks has created an enormous effect on American society and the world in terms of national security and government transparency. WikiLeaks was created as a not-for-profit media organization whose main goal is to bring important news and information to the public. Much of the information that WikiLeaks has published would be considered sensitive material and extremely classified by the US Government and many other governments across the world.
First off, wikis could provide many uses for the educational environment. Not only is it easy to access and doesn't require fancy hardware or programs, it also encourages participation to take place. Wiki pages can be edited by either students or professors with each page relating to a topic or subtopic to the class unit; these pages can either be a collaborative or individual effort depending on the professor's choice. Each page can consist of an image or video gallery to support the text or have links provided for students to learn more information. Also, there could be forums to discuss the information further with fellow peers. David L. Neumann conducted a research project to analyze the effects of using wikis against individual (traditional) lectures. At the end of the researc...