Week 8

This week we took a look at Wikis.

Quickly this is a list of the characteristics of a Wiki;

1.The main idea is it is a collaborative web page that is created by a bunch of people rather than just one or two site designers.

2.Once a wiki is up any editing such as text or image embedding is done in your web browser.

When editing they do not use HTML but their own code which is then turned into HTML when you finish the edit.

3. They have intuitive linking, something appearing in one wiki page is often given it's own page and that page can be reached simply by clicking on the word.

Example; chicken is mention in an article. It would be linked to a page about chicken.

4. There is an option to discuss the edit's with other people viewing the page before it is edited.

5. There is a log of the changes kept and the ability to go back to any previous version of the page.

Most of the lecture/tut was about wether wikipedia is an actual credible source.

I'd like to say that it is, usually.

The Wikipedia is, the wisdom of many after all so how could it not be a credible source?

After watching this I was convinced;

This guy however, is the founder of Wikipedia so of course he will tell everyone how awesome it is.

I think in the class we never came to a decision about wether it is a credible source or not. One side argued that it wasn't whilst the others did.

To keep this post short I'd like to conclude by saying Wikipedia is a great source of information. Everything I ever look for information on IS on Wikipedia after all BUT it should not be the only source you use.

I find Wikipedia is especially useful in finding out information that is already well known by some such as how many episodes there have been of a particular TV show. It isn't as helpful for finding out release dates of games and movies or about things that are upcoming. A lot of the time these are written by speculators or people who think they know everything but actually don't.

The Wikipedia should be used as a guide for further research by using the references left behind by the contributors.

The Wikipedia, if there isn't references, don't reference it.