Benoit,+Anne+Xaviera

Wikispace is an exciting place for anybody who can access it and who has thoughts to share. Its open source format is well suited for a class project and encourages participation. The class space has grown enormously over the past couple of weeks and I hope that my contribution has added something useful or at least a unique perspective on various issues surrounding digital innovation and cultural transformation. As far as community building goes, I thought that with all the facts and objective information available, students should also be encourage to write more subjectively on their own thoughts and opinions on various subjects. For this I included an “Opinions” section in the Navigation bar. Within twenty-four hours of creating this section, I noticed a lengthy discussion had begun with replies from other students. I participated both ways in the Questions and Answers, and also introduced a new topic to the Table of Contents: Copyrighting Online Work. This appears to be a hot topic, my “stub” included only a brief definition, it was quickly added on to. For my content contribution, I focused mainly on the Copyright area, adding A Brief History of Copyright, and also a section on the Copyleft and Permission Culture. Other areas I wrote on were Worker Surveillance in the Opinions section; National Surveillance, under the Surveillance chapter and Top Gadgets for Travelers under the Gadgets section. I think that my writing covers a good range of objective information, critical analysis and useful and relative news. The Space has been an interesting experience for me, and very different than anything that has been previously required of me. It actually contradicts the very method of thinking and working that university students are so accustomed to. Although its open source system was more faithful to what Tim Berners-Lee imagined the web to be like, it is still contrary to how we are used to using it. Traditionally when we read something as students or otherwise, we are free to think whatever we wish about the writer or subject but we are forced to recognize the integrity of that piece of work. Once we have read it, we can’t go back and tell the author his work garbage and that he should erase it. Now with Wikispace, we can, indirectly, do this. But should we? The sum of information should be representative of our class, because we are all free to write what we want, but it doesn’t seem to work that way. The system lacks hierarchy – mediocre ideas and subjects have just as much as a right as more interesting ones. I think that many of us are hesitant to, or feel it unjust to erase other people’s work. We might figure that because there is nothing inaccurate or technically wrong, it deserves to stay up. The problem is then that the site never stops growing and it begins to look junky. My advice to future students is to take advantage of your collective ability to filter out the more thoughtless work and leave in what really counts or adds depth. We should not feel offended if our own work is erased (it is still recorded in the professor’s files), it is natural and necessary towards keeping the site fresh.