So, this week I have been reading about what a Wiki is. Wiki's epitomize collaboration, coordination and contribution, which are all hallmarks of Web 2.0. Wiki's harness the true power of Web 2.0 and Hypertext linking!
Whilst Blogs are collaborative in one sense they are not as collaborative as Wiki's, that is, Wiki's enable joint collaboration and contribution, there is no heir-achy or leader in control of the contribution (unless one is appointed), the crowd or "Herd Mentality" drives the composition of the content. Blogs on the other hand are driven and controlled by the author or owner of the Blog. Such as this Blog, I control the Blog title and the main "post", people can feel free (if I allow it) to add comments, however the composition of the "post" (content) can never change unless I change it myself.
The best known example of a true "open" Wiki is of course Wikipedia. Wikipedia is essentially an online encyclopaedia, the fascinating thing about it is that it is open to anyone who wishes to edit or create a page. I did such a thing earlier tonight, I found a topic that I know a little about (the suburb in which I live, Elsternwick) and edited the page to include a sentence about café's and restaurants. The hardest think I found about contributing to Wikipedia was actually finding a topic that I felt comfortable with....try it and see how you go!
Is Wikipedia as "open" as it is suggested? By his own admission Jimmy Wales in this video (Jimmy Wales: How a ragtag band created Wikipedia) suggests the Wikipedia community does have a heir-achy and that "wikipedians" do have a ranking structure. So whilst Wikipedia is open in the sense that everyone can contribute, the contributions themselves can and are in some cases controlled, primarily to ensure the sites content integrity, to keep it free of vandalism, junk articles and to ensure articles are truthful and factual....not such a bad thing!
How factual and truthful is Wikipedia? There are many examples of Wikipedia having incorrect content, the majority of the time the incorrect content is corrected relatively quickly, sometimes in minutes or at least a couple of days, in essence one of the great benefits of a Wiki and for that matter Wikipedia is that it is a self- correcting system however there is one famous example where a false post (A False Wikipedia biography) remained active for 132 days on Wikipedia.
So Wiki's provide the perfect platform to "harness the herd", that is, that the intelligence of the group as a whole will present an answer that is more accurate than that of the individual. This is in essence Decentralized decision Making and Wiki's provide the perfect platform for its manifestation.
Wiki's are yet another example of social interplay manifested through a physical technology.
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