TechPost #3: Future Thinking

Word Doc: http://www.sfu.ca/~ata48/TECH%20114/TechPost%203.doc


                                               The Future of Wikis

Description:

         In the year 2059, WikiEverything.org continues to provide its users with all the information one will ever need on the Internet, including encyclopaedia articles, news feeds, how-to guides, and full-text online books. WikiEverything employs experts of any given field to maintain certain Wikis contained in the encyclopaedia section of the website. Only registered users have the ability to alter the contents of a Wiki and can create their own Wikis as well. WikiEverything also uses a revolutionary algorithm that finds web pages on the Internet that are related to the Wiki, and then provides a link to that web page on the Wiki. WikiEverything has become the number one source of information on the Internet, and people such as students use it for academic purposes, or everyday people use it to look up simple facts or to get the current news.

Development:

         On April 27, 2026, the already popular Wikipedia began to employ experts, such as scientists, mathematicians, professors, etc., to maintain Wikis that were in their field of expertise. These people were responsible for approving or disapproving any changes that people made to the Wikis under their watch, which meant that any change to a Wiki had to be approved before it was made visible. Any user that made changes that were obscene, sarcastic, rude, or included any other offensive material had their accounts reported to the Wikipedia regulation panel, where then the nature of the problem was assessed and a punishment was carried out as necessary. In most cases, users had their accounts and their IP addresses permanently banned for making changes such as deleting entire blocks of words, adding expletives, etc. so that these users will not have to be dealt with again.

         Ever since the creation of Wikipedia in 2001 (“History of wikis”, 2009), many people questioned the credibility of its articles since it could be freely edited, which meant users could intentionally edit an article to provide false information. Some educational institutions even went as far as banning it from being cited in a student’s work. But soon after Wikipedia began employing experts to maintain Wikis, society as a whole began to trust Wikipedia as a reliable source of information since all changes made to its articles had to be approved.

         Wikipedia soon changed its name to WikiEverything, after it provided more services than just a free online encyclopaedia. Some of these services include: news feeds, how-to guides, full-text online books, message boards, and an image database which were all entirely free. On September 4, 2049, WikiEverything perfected a new algorithm that continuously searched the Internet for web pages that related to a particular article, and then provided a link to that web page on the Wiki article. This innovative algorithm would search the contents of a web page and try to match particular phrases and keywords with the contents of a Wiki article on WikiEverything, if the two are related, then the algorithm would add a link to the “Related Information” section of the Wiki.

         This algorithm provided users with even more information by including links to web pages of the same topic as the Wiki article. This would also have been more suitable for people who were still sceptical about the information that was offered by Wikis, as they now have an alternative to just Wiki articles, but at the same time use a Wiki to retrieve this information. Another impact this algorithm would have is that if one wanted more information about a particular topic, they would not have to use a search engine like Google to search for this information, they can simply click on the Related Information tab on the Wiki and a nice list of links would be presented to them.

Rationale:

         Wikis have come a long way from first being designed to simplify the exchange of ideas between computer programmers, by allowing its pages to be editable by its users (“WikiWikiWeb”, 2009). Now that Wikis have become available to the general public, people are coming to expect more from Wikis, including reliability and searchability. Users expect that the information that they read on a Wiki is the truth and that they can trust it. Much of technology is about making things more convenient for the users, and it would be much more convenient for a Wiki article to provide links to other articles on the same topic from different web pages.

         Since people expect that a Wiki should be reliable, one must think that a Wiki website such as Wikipedia would put a system in place that ensures the credibility of its articles. Having a team of experts handling certain Wikis is certainly viable and they do not necessarily have to have to be supported financially either. Take for instance, a certain article about fossils. It would not be entirely impractical for hundreds of palaeontologists around the world to maintain this Wiki, in their free time, and approve or disapprove any changes made to it. Is it not a goal of an expert or scientist to educate others with this information, and what better way to do this than to ensure that an online article is accurate? Searching the Internet for information is difficult because you do not always get what you are looking for. As computers continue to evolve and become faster and smarter, so too will the software that they run on. This means that better searching algorithms will be implemented, so that one will get exactly what they are looking for.

         In terms of how I imagined the future of this technology, I thought about the ever expanding Wikipedia, and how with more articles, there is a higher chance of people tampering with the accuracy of these articles. Also, with more information becoming available on the Internet, better searching algorithms would be used to put this information together. WikiEverything is based on the idea that people want things done better, faster, and easier. It also does not hurt to include more features as well.

Reference List

History of wikis. (2009). In Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia. Retrieved April 5, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_wikis

WikiWikiWeb. (2009). In Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia. Retrieved April 5, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WikiWikiWeb

TechPost #2: An Historical Framework

Word Document: http://www.sfu.ca/~ata48/TECH%20114/TechPost2.doc

                The Technological Development of Wikis Through History

        A Wiki is a collection of web pages that are designed to allow anyone to have the ability to contribute or modify its content. Wikis did not exist up until the mid-1990s since they require the use of a computer and the Internet, which also did not exist until the late 20th century. Though since its creation, Wikis have developed and continue to do so with the rapid growth of the Internet.

        A Wiki is an article of information that can be edited by anyone at anytime. A Wiki can be accessed through the Internet, which can be anywhere in the world. This obviously would not be possible during the industrial era due to the lack of the appropriate technology that a Wiki utilizes. In the 18th and 19th centuries, documents that served the same purpose of a Wiki were usually physical documents that had only one author and could not be edited by anyone. The sharing of information was also difficult during this period since communication was limited to in-person means and by mail. In addition, education during this time was limited to certain classes which meant that illiteracy rates among society were high (“Education in Britain during the 18th century”, n.d.).

        Before the first Wiki was ever created, there existed a few early forms of technology that resembled the attributes of a Wiki. One of these examples is Vannevar Bush’s Memex that was created in 1945, which is “a device in which an individual stores his books, records, and communications, and which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility” (Landow, 1992). In other words, this device would effectively create automated links between documents, which is an essential trait of a Wiki as we know it today. Another example was the ZOG database system for a multi-user environment. This was one of the earliest forms of a Wiki that used a computer. It was created in 1972 by researchers at Carnegie-Mellon University which consisted of text-only frames which in themselves, consisted of titles, descriptions, a line with ZOG commands, and sets of selections that lead to other frames (Cunningham & Cunningham, 2008). Neither of these technologies had a major influence on society, but they did help take part in the creation of the Wiki.

        The first Wiki was born with the continued expansion of the Internet. “WikiWikiWeb” was developed in 1994 by Ward Cunningham and was designed to simplify the exchange of ideas between programmers by allowing its pages to be quickly editable by its users (“WikiWikiWeb”, 2009). Soon after, the first clones of WikiWikiWeb were born, one being CvWiki which developed by Peter Merel in 1997. It was the first clone to have functioning transclusion and back links, and also integrated Concurrent Version System software that provided unlimited undo and no edit abilities. Since the first Wikis were designed to be used by computer programmers, they were virtually unknown outside of this group. It was then that Wikipedia, created in 2001, introduced Wikis to the general public and provided a free content encyclopaedia that can be edited by anyone. In its first year, over 20,000 encyclopaedia entries were created (“History of wikis”, 2009). Since then, the number of users and articles has grown exponentially. As of today, Wikipedia includes several million articles and pages in hundreds of languages, with content from millions of contributors.

        It is clear that Wikis have become some of the most popular websites, after initially being created for small groups of computer programmers, it has become available and used by hundreds of millions of users and editors today. With the continued growth of the Internet, the amount of information available continues to grow as well, and because of this, encyclopaedias, dictionaries, and other reference books are expected to be replaced by the Internet. Though since Wikis can be freely edited by anyone, many object to the use of Wikis since they can potentially contain inaccurate information, and so they question the reliability of Wikis as a source of information; while others simply accept the potential inaccuracies as fact. One thing is for sure, Wikis can be an easy way to quickly look up information that may not necessarily be used for academic purposes. Also, outside of the context of Wikis being used as an encyclopaedia, they can be very useful for a team of people working on a project, for example, exactly what the first Wiki was created for; to simplify the exchange of ideas between computer programmers. One can only imagine how much more Wikis will continue to develop.

Reference List

Cunningham & Cunningham. (2008, June). Wiki Wiki origin. Retrieved March 17, 2009, from http://c2.com/cgi-bin/wiki?WikiWikiOrigin

Education in Britain during the 18th century. (n.d.). Retrieved March 17, 2009, from http://english3204.ash.com

History of wikis. (2009). In Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia. Retrieved March 17, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_wikis

Landow, G. (1992). Vannevar Bush and the memex. Retrieved March 17, 2009, from Cyberarts and Cyberculture Research Initiative site: http://www.cyberartsweb.org/cpace/ht/jhup/memex.html

WikiWikiWeb. (2009). In Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia. Retrieved March 17, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WikiWikiWeb

StudioLab #4 – Facebook Profile: Alexander Graham Bell

References:

Alexander Graham Bell. (2009). In Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Graham_Bell

Bellis, M. (2009). Alexander graham bell. Retrieved from About.com site: http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bltelephone2.htm

Pictures:

Alexander Graham Bell
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Alexander_Graham_Bell.jpg

Charles Taunter
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/26/Charles_Sumner_Tainter.jpg

Casey Baldwin
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/F.W_Baldwin-Ridley%2C_1900.jpg

Glenn Curtiss
http://earlyaviators.com/curtiss1907port.jpg

Helen Keller
http://www.cqcapd.state.ny.us/Danweb/images/hellen%20keller.jpg

Joseph Henry
http://www.converter.cz/fyzici/images/o_henry.jpg

Mabel Hubbard
http://www.telephonymuseum.com/images/mabel16.jpg

Thomas Etholen Selfridge
http://www.lessignets.com/signetsdiane/calendrier/images/sept/17/Thomas_selfridge1616.jpg

Thomas A. Watson
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f8/Thomas_watson.jpg

Wikis in Contemporary Society

        A Wiki is an online web site that can be edited by any user, of which its contents are generally meant to educate readers. The popular online encyclopaedia website, Wikipedia.org, took advantage of this and created a website composed entirely of Wikis. Wikipedia has become a central resource for Internet users since its entries do not have to be approved and they can be edited by any reader (Lundin, 2008), therefore it is a popular website for researching topics. However, for the very same reason that they are user-edited, many people question the validity of Wikis as a source of information because they can easily be abused and can supply the reader with false information.

        In the article, “Wikis and Constructivism in Secondary Social Studies: Fostering a Deeper Understanding”, Heafner and Friedman (2008) suggest that Wikis have the potential to give students the ability to become active contributors to the Internet, and in turn, reform traditional learning environments. The study evaluated the effects of student-created Wikis through the measures of student learning in the long and short term, student engagement, and cognitive benefits. It studied the effects between students that used Wikis and students who had learned the same content through a teacher’s direction. The data that resulted from the study suggests that the use of Wikis made possible the shift from traditional teacher instructional approaches to student-oriented learning. The authors also found that this resulted in an increase in student self-efficiency and motivation. Several months after the study, interviews with the students that used Wikis found that they had greater content reservation and understanding than the students who had learned from a teacher. In short, the study found that the long-term value of Wikis had a positive impact on student understanding by helping them link content and develop a deeper understanding through visualization of the chronology of events.

        I personally feel that Wikis, for the most part, have a positive effect on our society. When writing a school paper, Wikipedia or any other Wiki websites for that matter, would not be my first choice in researching topics and it is most likely not the first choice of others as well. In fact, I do not believe I have ever used a Wiki for writing a paper, and it is unlikely that I will ever do so for this purpose. Some have even gone as far as banning Wikis from being cited, such as institutions like Middlebury College, whose history department did just that (Lundin, 2008). However, Wikis are a good way to look up fast facts since you get exactly what you are looking for, so long as the information is taken in with discretion.

        One possible way that Wikis may be overcome is by an advanced type of search engine, one that collects the most relevant data from only credible sources and puts them nicely together on a webpage for the user. This idea may be possible but it would be extremely difficult to implement because of the sheer amount of information that is available on the Internet. In terms of education, Wikis may be reversed in that all major post-secondary institutions or even secondary schools could ban any Wiki sites from being used, just like some institutions have already done. If Wikis cannot be used for educational purposes, then there will be little reason to maintain these websites.

        Better yet, Wikis can be improved upon, specifically Wikipedia. As it stands, users are able to go on a Wikipedia page and edit it with just a click. If there were some sort of system in place to ensure that a page can only be saved when the changes made to it are approved, then we would have a web page that is created for the community, by the community, and the authenticity of its ideas hold true. Who will the people that approve these changes be you might ask? These people must be trusted experts from the specific field of study, so each expert may manage multiple Wikis, of subjects of their expertise. This means that there must be a board of editors that have to maintain all Wikis, and therein lies the problem. They must take the time, and an emphasis on time, to maintain these Wikis. It’s not likely that they will do it for free either, but who knows, maybe this type of service will be available in the future. Until then, the amount of Wikis will continue to grow, and will do so for a long time.

References:

        Heafner, T., & Friedman, A. (2008, September). Wikis and Constructivism in Secondary Social Studies: Fostering a Deeper Understanding. Computers in the Schools, 25(3/4), 288-302. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier Database.

        Lundin, R. (2008, December). Teaching with Wikis: Toward a Networked Pedagogy. Computers & Composition, 25(4), 432-448. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier Database.

        Matias, M. (2003, November). What is a Wiki? Retrieved from http://www.sitepoint.com/article/what-is-a-wiki/

Plagiarism Tutorial Quizzes

Introductory Post

Hi, my name is Andy To and I am a first year Computing Science student at Simon Fraser University.  Some of my interests are computers, video games, and playing hockey.  My favourite technology would have to be the Internet because there is an endless amount of things you can do on it.  It provides me with information needed for school, the ability to talk to friends, and gives me something to do when i’m bored.