Analysis+and+Reflection+Denyse+Gibson

=Summary=

I was very confused with the purpose behind this project in the start. I think a great deal of my uncertainty had to due with the fact that I was unsure exactly of what a wiki was and what it entailed. Before starting on my own page, I took quite some time observing other wiki’s especially those in Wikipedia with special attention to my fellow piers contributions. I would say that I was a little slow to start but after my research, the general idea was gained and I began my own. I believed it to be important to get as much information about my chosen topic as possible before I posted. My reasoning behind this strategy was because I personally do not like the idea that others could edit my page at any time. I wanted to have substantial information gained so that I could post the majority of my content at once to alleviate the problem of having others post information that I have already gathered before myself or posting incorrect data. I also wanted to make sure that my wiki was a smooth read and having organized my information prior to posting made this possible. Following my large post, I continually furthered my research and found new ideas and information that I felt was pertinent to my topic and periodically posted it as well. I maintained my wiki by finding new ways that I could make its appearance more aesthetically pleasing with things such as headings, table of contents etc. I then went back and made sure to site all my information so not to get accused of plagiarism and finished off with a works sited section. Lastly, I looked around for other wiki’s that I felt I would be able to contribute to the most successfully. The best topics to collaborate with were the Democratic Divide and the Social Divide. I collected the information that I had gained from my topic and made connections to these two other topics and posted information on my classmate’s wiki’s. I also posted information on a wiki dealing with Culture Jamming just becuse I am interested in that topic and I already knew quite a bit of information about that phenomenon.

=Reflections & Observations=

I can honestly say that I did not particularly enjoy this assignment. I liked the idea that we were able to pick our own topic of interest to research, however, I did not like the fact that we had to place this information on a wiki, a mechanism that allows others to edit your work freely. I consider myself a fairly protective person and I am especially defensive about my work. For this reason, I did not like how others to alter the work that I had spent time working on. However, I did like the option we had to delete information that was added if we felt that it did not pertain to our topic. I also did not like how the information had to be typed directly into Wikipedia and that we did not have the option to copy and paste from another program to insure that our spelling was correct. I found that aspect quite frustrating, as I am not particularly a good speller. Lastly, I was frustrated with the entire essence of the wiki. By this I am referring to the fact that your work can be constantly be edited. I do believe this to be a beneficial function however, it can be quite bothersome as it seems as though your work can never be perfected. I found myself going back to my wiki time and again to ensure it still contained the content I wanted and saw more ways in which I could do to improve my section.

=Suggestions=

Suggestions that I would give to future CCIT students when tackling the Wiki project would be to research your topic thoroughly and make sure you have enough information before you create your on wiki as there are a lot of pages out there with little relavance or importance. Furthermore, make yourself familiar with wiki's becuse they are becoming a tool that many businesses are utilizing and it is a good life skill to learn to collaborate with others.