Over the semester, I have made a variety of edits to Wikipedia. The project showed me that editing Wikipedia is very simple. It is interesting how users do not even need to create a username or sign-in to edit a Wikipedia page. Many people use Wikipedia, but I think few of those people ever consider adding or changing information on Wikipedia. While reading the required blogs, I found a post, "Wikipedia. Just how popular is it?, on the Global Neighbourhoods Blog. The article claims that over one third of online Americans have consulted Wikipedia. Rubel says he believes Wikipedia is 100% accurate as it will eventually correct itself. I think that the community nature of Wikipedia makes it very accurate, and it will only become more accurate and information rich as more and more users understand the ease involved in editing.
Although I found Wikipedia simple to edit, the edits I made generated little reaction from the community. All four articles that I chose had very little information when I began the series of edits. The topics are all very narrow, and there is not much information available. From travel and an internship, however, I knew a bit about each of my topics. Through the course of the semester I was able to add any information I have on the topics. Below I will discuss the evolution of each article:
Paderno del Grappa: While studying abroad, I lived in Paderno del Grappa for over three months. I decided that this would be a good Wikipedia article to edit since when I began editing the article there was so little information. I added everything I knew about Paderno, but since it is such a small town, the article is still very brief. I also added two links to external sites so anyone researching the town will be able to gather additional information. Since the time I began editing the article, only one other user edited the Paderno page. This user only added more information to the article, and did not change any of the information I contributed. After editing the Paderno del Grappa page several times, the page provides a more clear picture of where the town is located, the population, and the schools in the town.
Violet Oakley: This Wikipedia page also began with very little information. Through my series of edits, I added information about the artist's life, works of art, the group of artists to which she belonged, and external links. From the time I began edits, this article also received little reaction from the community. One user Wikilinked dates I added to the article, but did not make any other changes. The other community member who made changes to the Oakley page had previously made numerous additions to this page. This person simply added an infobox with general information about Oakley. It was nice to see positive additions to the article.
Edwin Austin Abbey: During the course of my edits to this Wikipedia page, no community members made any changes or added additional information. Like the others, this article contained very little information when I began the edits. I added information about Abbey's life, education, works of art, and links to outside sources. Although the article is still brief and classified as a "stub" by Wikipedia, I feel as though the article now provides a much more comprehensive overview of the artist.
Henry Chapman Mercer: Through my series of edits to the Henry Chapman Mercer article, no other members of the Wikipedia community made any contributions. Of the four, this article began as the weakest. I added information about Mercer's life, his works of art, an information box, outside links, and re-arranged the article so it is presented in a meaningful order. The article now provides much more information about Mercer, however, more could still be added. The information I added about Mercer is related to his works in the Pennsylvania Capitol Building. The Wikipedia article now slants toward that information, and not some of his other important commissions. This proves the importance of additions from many sources in Wikipedia.
Overall, my edits to Wikipedia generated little (or no!) reaction from the community. The Global Neighbourhoods Blog linked above claims Wikipedia to be 100% accurate. While this may be true for popular topics, my experience shows that for some topics, members of the community may not be watching. As Wikipedia becomes increasingly popular, more and more people will make changes to the site when they notice faulty information. I hope that my contributions provide useful information to Wikipedia users, and users add more information down the road. I have found editing Wikipedia to be very simple, and I will certainly add or change information on other Wikipedia articles in the future.
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Teammate's Blog - Digg
While reading my teammate's blogs, I found an interesting post about Digg on
Drew Turner's Blog. We talked about Digg in class, but Drew actually added an article to the site. He said that creating an article and adding a story was very simple. This inspired me to check out Digg for myself. I found that Digg provided an interesting array of stories. This is a completely different way for people to access news. There are stories from a variety of topics, and from a variety of sources. Digg is just another example of how the internet shifts power to the common person. Stories on Digg's homepage were not picked by editors of major news websites, but instead by the users of Digg. Considering the ease of use and the variety of stories offered by Digg, I think Digg will continue to grow in popularity and become more mainstream in the next few months.
Drew Turner's Blog. We talked about Digg in class, but Drew actually added an article to the site. He said that creating an article and adding a story was very simple. This inspired me to check out Digg for myself. I found that Digg provided an interesting array of stories. This is a completely different way for people to access news. There are stories from a variety of topics, and from a variety of sources. Digg is just another example of how the internet shifts power to the common person. Stories on Digg's homepage were not picked by editors of major news websites, but instead by the users of Digg. Considering the ease of use and the variety of stories offered by Digg, I think Digg will continue to grow in popularity and become more mainstream in the next few months.
Slashdot - iPhone
While reading the required blogs, I came across the article FCC Approves iPhone on Slashdot. The article talks about a phone from Apple that is expected to hit shelves in June. The phone will combine a phone and MP3 and will have Bluetooth and WiFi. This product seems very interesting, and I am excited to see the product when it comes out. There are already phone/MP3 players on the market. The other products on the market hold very little music, making them unattractive to many buyers. I would be interested in the Apple phone if it holds a decent amount of music. The Slashdot article is very sparse; few details about the product are being released. Apple usually comes out with innovative products, so I am curious to see other iPhone features.
Wikipedia Edit - Edwin Austin Abbey
I just completed my third edit to the Edwin Austin Abbey Wikipedia Page. I added information about Abbey's illness and death. With the addition of this information about the later years of Abbey's life, I have added everything to the article that I have knowledge of at this time. This section included a lot of references to other Wikipedia pages, so I included links to other pages where necessary. Below is the text that I added to Wikipedia:
Unfortunately, Abbey became ill with cancer in 1911 slowing his work. At the time, he was working on the "Reading of the Declaration of Independence Mural" which was later installed in the House Chamber. Abbey was so ill, that his studio assistant, Ernest Board completed the work with little supervision from Abbey. Later in 1911, Abbey passed away, leaving his commission for the State Capitol of Pennsylvania unfinished. John Singer Sargent, a friend and neighbor of Abbey, and studio assistant Board completed the "Reading of the Declaration of Independence Mural." Abbey's works were installed in the Rotunda and House Chamber. Two rooms from Abbey's commission were left undone, and the remainder of the commission was given to Violet Oakley. Oakley completed the works from start to finish using her own designs.
Unfortunately, Abbey became ill with cancer in 1911 slowing his work. At the time, he was working on the "Reading of the Declaration of Independence Mural" which was later installed in the House Chamber. Abbey was so ill, that his studio assistant, Ernest Board completed the work with little supervision from Abbey. Later in 1911, Abbey passed away, leaving his commission for the State Capitol of Pennsylvania unfinished. John Singer Sargent, a friend and neighbor of Abbey, and studio assistant Board completed the "Reading of the Declaration of Independence Mural." Abbey's works were installed in the Rotunda and House Chamber. Two rooms from Abbey's commission were left undone, and the remainder of the commission was given to Violet Oakley. Oakley completed the works from start to finish using her own designs.
Wikipedia Edit - Henry Chapman Mercer
I just completed my third edit to the Henry Chapman Mercer Wikipedia Article.. The first thing I added was an information box about Mercer. This box should be helpful as quick reference to anyone looking at the article. The information box was extremely easy to add. I simply copied the code from another article which included the information box and pasted it into the code for the Mercer article. I then changed the information in the box to be appropriate for Mercer. I also added some additional text to the article. There was not much more that I could add to the article since I already included almost everything I know about Mercer. I added some information about Mercer's beliefs/influences, and a brief sentence about the Mercer Museum. I made sure to include links to other Wikipedia articles where appropriate. Below is the text that I added to the article in this edit:
Mercer believed that the American society was being destroyed by industrialism, which inspired his search for American Artifacts. Mercer founded Moravian Pottery and Tile Works in 1898 after apprenticing himself to a Pennsylvania German potter. Mercer was also influenced by the American Arts and Crafts Movement.
The Mercer Museum houses over forty thousand artifacts from early American society.
Mercer believed that the American society was being destroyed by industrialism, which inspired his search for American Artifacts. Mercer founded Moravian Pottery and Tile Works in 1898 after apprenticing himself to a Pennsylvania German potter. Mercer was also influenced by the American Arts and Crafts Movement.
The Mercer Museum houses over forty thousand artifacts from early American society.
Class Discussion
A great deal of our class discussion was focused on Search Engine Optimization, and we even experimented with the concept with the stiuqxela experiment. We also discussed vanity searches and person as a brand. Earlier in the semester after discussing vanity searches, I decided to do a vanity search. In the results, I could hardly find my blog as it appeared very late in the search results. I was behind all sorts of birth and death records from hundreds of years ago and even a series of novels with a main character who shares my name. After discussing search engine optimization, I decided I would attempt to optimize my blog to see if I could boost my results. I added a number of links to template of my blog including teammates blogs, class blog, wikipedia articles, and required reading blogs. Also in the template I included a section entitled "Anne Wylde's Blog" which described the purpose of the blog. The only other change I made was posting more. I just did another vanity Google search to find this blog as the top result: Google Search Results
John Battelle's Searchblog has a link to an interesting article, "Judges Say Google Background Checks are OK", about a ruling stating that background checks using Google are legal. This article demonstrates the necessity of performing a vanity search in order to determine what others may be deducing about you from the web. According to this ruing, it is legal for an employer to use information from the web for hiring/firing decisions.
John Battelle's Searchblog has a link to an interesting article, "Judges Say Google Background Checks are OK", about a ruling stating that background checks using Google are legal. This article demonstrates the necessity of performing a vanity search in order to determine what others may be deducing about you from the web. According to this ruing, it is legal for an employer to use information from the web for hiring/firing decisions.
ClickZ News - Google's Universal Search
While reading the required class blogs, I recently found an interesting article on ClickZ News. The article, called "Branding, SEO Implications for Google Universal Search" discusses the marketing implications for Google's new Universal Search. Google Universal Search was launched on May 17, and will eventually provide a search results page with images, videos playable on the results page, maps, and more. The "richer" search results page will have major effects on internet advertisers. Soon, advertisers will optimize videos so they appear in Google's results. It is likely that a "richer" form of multimedia content will appear higher in the search results, changing SEO. The ClickZ article also speculates as to what this means for its paid advertisements. "Brand advertisers" will likely wish to pay for advertising with multimedia content, however this could have an impact on advertisers already using AdWords.
I thought that this article was very interesting, and brought together a lot of the concepts we discussed in class throughout the semester. Google's new search results will definitely have a major impact on search. When videos can be played directly from the search results, this will change the idea of search engines being used in order to get to another place on the web. If Google eventually offers paid advertisements with multimedia content, this could take away from the opportunities small advertisers have with AdWords. An advertiser with a small budget who wishes to advertise using AdWords will likely be less effective when competing against advertisers in the same category using flashy videos. It will be interesting to see the effects that Google's new search engine results will have on search as a whole down the road.
I thought that this article was very interesting, and brought together a lot of the concepts we discussed in class throughout the semester. Google's new search results will definitely have a major impact on search. When videos can be played directly from the search results, this will change the idea of search engines being used in order to get to another place on the web. If Google eventually offers paid advertisements with multimedia content, this could take away from the opportunities small advertisers have with AdWords. An advertiser with a small budget who wishes to advertise using AdWords will likely be less effective when competing against advertisers in the same category using flashy videos. It will be interesting to see the effects that Google's new search engine results will have on search as a whole down the road.
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