Response #10: The experience of editing Wikipedia December 1, 2009

  Before doing the wikipedia project, I had never edited a page on wikipedia or created a new one. To be honest, I was a little intimidated of how to present content, what resources to use, how to use the site’s editing formats, and fearful that someone would take my edits down or that they would not be approved. With all that said, I was relived when I realized that it wasn’t as intimidating as I thought it would be and my edits are still up. It feels good to know that I contributed to a free open source encyclopedia that anyone can access.

What really helped me was the wikipedia step by step tutorial, it really makes the whole editing process much easier and it really is user friendly. I think that anyone who is interested in editing or posting on wikipedia should read over all the tutorial steps because not only does it simplify the process, but it also eliminates room for error in editing formats, citations, links and resources.

After I posted my edits, I was pretty excited to see that they were still up there, and that I was able to add more information on something I was interested in. It was also reassuring to see that the page editor had seen my edits, citations and resources. After seeing the internal workings of wikipedia, I still think it’s a great free information resource. I also think that people who spend time learning about the editing process and actually research a topic, are most likely serious about the information that they are intending posting. In class we covered the issue of inaccuracies on wikipedia and the lack editing guidelines, but after doing the project I really think that the majority of people editing on wikipedia are serious about what they are doing, because it can be a time consuming process. There is always room for error and for some inaccurate edits to slip through the cracks. This has led to restrictions on editing to certain pages, such as articles on people.

 I think Wikipedia is a very impressive project that has a lot of potential for more growth. I encourage people to play around with Wikipedia; I’m glad I did!

Interested in who these “editors and contributors” are on wikipedia? Check out this video from CBS News.

Response #9 November 18, 2009

Wikipedia a Good Resource..

I know many people question the accuracy and validity of Wikipedia, for good reasons, but personally I’m a fan of both the site itself and what Wikipedia stands for. Founder Jimmy Wales’s open source enclyopedia allows anyone to create and edit articles on just about any topic. The goal of the project is to give everyone with Internet access the other opportunity to access this free encyclopedia, which is also available in many languages. As of today there are a total of 3,097,167 articles, and 18,586,975 pages in the English version. Wow!

 

I think that the concept of Wikipedia is great and the cause is noble, but since it is an open source platform and anyone can become an expert and make tweaks, this is where users need to proceed with caution. Users should be aware that there will be information that is inaccurate and maybe even false altogether. Personally, I use Wikipedia to get background information but since I know that people can make edits at anytime, I would most likely not use it as a primary source or my sole source of information. Wikipedia attempts to verify the posted information but sometimes not everything can be confirmed.

 

Just because there can be inaccuracies on Wikipedia doesn’t mean it’s not a good free encyclopedia, and Wikipedia has the potential to be even better if there was more of a review process and more restrictions and guidelines for posting articles or making edits. Browsing around Wikipedia I came across a page that catalogs mistakes and omissions in the Encyclopedia Britannica. It’s interesting to check out!

 

There is always room for error and Wikipedia does have a general disclaimer stating “to be advised that nothing found here has necessarily been reviewed by people with the expertise required to provide you with complete, accurate or reliable information.” With that said, users should be smart about what they use Wikipedia for.

 

Check out this video of news personality Brian Williams as he discusses his biography entry posted onWikipedia!!

Response #8 November 11, 2009

Last week’s class lecture on crowdsourcing and open source software offered good insight to how these platforms work and their rise in popularity. Two great examples that we examined in class were Wikipedia and Threadless. I had heard about threadless before and we have also talked about it in my branding class. I think it’s really cool that people can display their own designs, that people have the option of voting for their favorite design and that you can also purchase your favorite t-shirts. The top selling t-shirt designs were the ones with the most votes and it’s the threadless community that drives these t-shirt sales.

I did some exploring this week to see if i could find some other crowdsourcing networks that have strong communities and where the communities votes can turn your design into a top seller! On Minted, a recently launched site that sells stationary and paper products, allows designers to submit designs where they are voted on.  The top designs get to become part of the inventory, similar to the way threadless works. Another interesting site is Designbyhumans, which is also another t-shirt site where people submit their designs and the community votes on their favorites. It’s also a community that discusses art and Design by Humans holds contests to find the best t-shirt design in exchange for a cash prize.

Online Merch Table launched on Nimbit, is a place where you can sell your songs and merchandise such as t-shirts, hats and posters. You can also create a bio page for fans to find out more about you and  your fans can sign up for your newsletter. At spreadshirt, users set up online shops to sell t-shirts, hats, and mugs. Users can also browse by topics such as humor and holidays or by products such as bags, caps and aprons. Users can also leave feedback on products they like.

There are many sites out there (i just mentioned a few!) that encompass the elements of crowdsourcing and it’s really interesting to see how these interactive communities work and how they have the ability to essentially change someones life by making their design into a top selling t-shirt or stationary paper. There are also many open source applications out there that are pretty cool.