Kopfensteiner,+Rick

Summary

The topics of the National Security State, The UNIVAC computer system, technical occupations and major additions to the topics of social polarization and the Post Industiral Revolution were the main topics that I contributed to in the Wikispace development project. I also helped to add pictures to topics to make them more interesting, as well as fixed a few minor errors on pages including the main Table of Contents to make navigation a bit easier.

What I have noticed with this assignment is that it takes up a large portion of your time. Between the amount of research, placing your notes into a small essay format, then transmitting all of the data onto the computer and adding active links, tables of contents, and pictures all take up large amounts of time. The idea of adding topics online seems simple in the beginning stages, however even over a span of two weeks it becomes much more complicated than originally anticipated. To post information on the wikispace, one wants their information to be correct and to look better than everybody else's. It is difficult to add much personalization to a wikispace since they are all meant to resemble one another, apart from the content. While collaborative writing works well for spaces such as this, it seems like the lines can become blurred with regards to where the original author was headed with their content. Individual contributors can add their information, however it is easy to move the topic in another direction. While this can be a positive factor in that the contributinos can become extensive and far-reaching, it seems like there might be too much on just one subject. The amount of work that is required seems like it can be called into question - how much does one really have to input into the wikispace to be considered a 'significant' contribution? Some individuals have upwards of 100 page edits, where there are some with as few as 10. However, out of those 100, how many are substantial? Odds are that of the 10, 8 are the most significant, while maybe roughly the same amount are substantial out of the 100. Overall the collaborative writing experience is a good one. It is nice to find a 'Table of Contents' already created in one of your sections, saving you the trouble. it is also good to see that all of the works come together, they all beocme linked to one another, and the work makes sense.

For future endeavors with the wikispace assignment, my main suggestion to students would be to start early and to contribute as much as you can; not necessarily //all// critical in-depth research articles, but posting messages and other 'fixer-upper's' on the site. to post on your choice of major topics is important, but try not to add too much of your own voice because as others start to add to it, you lose any effect you were trying to get across with your personal intonation's. Another suggestion is to add pictures to your write ups on line. It makes reading the information much more interesting when you can relate a picture to the text.