Beyond Wikis and Blogs

Beyond Wikis and Blogs

by Terry Fogarty -
Number of replies: 1

I have been doing some reading and thinking. I do this sometimes.

I was reading W. Olaf Stapledon (Last and First Men - 1930) and came
across the following:

"`telepathic' intercourse had resulted in a true group-mind, a single
physical process embodied in the electro-magnetic radiation of the
whole race; but the group-mind was inferior in calibre to the
individual minds." p. 240.

Whilst Stapledon ascribed his original 'group-mind' to his Martians, in
this instance he was referring to his Fifth Men (on earth).

Whilst, I do not claim to have telepathic capabilities I feel
Stapledon's reference may be equaly applicable to our ever evolving
ability to communicate globally.

Most Wiki's work on the basis of 'last-in-best-dressed'. By this I mean
they tend to offer just one version of truth (sans ascribtion). Alternatively the wiki may be used on the basis of "last-in-best-dressed-up" if used collaboratively so that all voices and perspectives are retained by always 'adding' to the wiki sans deletions.

Blog's on the other hand represent personal truths - as such they are
infallible.

What is the best way to develop shared truth (knowledge) and values?

Should we concentrate on search technqiues that extract, analyse and
synthesise truth from on-line blogs or do we develop Wiki's that allow
for a variety of perpsecitive?

For instance, MS word has an 'autosummarise' function that extracts meaning from a large document. Does similar search technology exist to extract themes, common perspectives and counterpoints from Blog sites or online forums?

Maybe you could dicuss some of this with your students?

I would also be interested in pesonal viewpoints.

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In reply to Terry Fogarty

Re: Beyond Wikis and Blogs

by Ludo (Marc Alier) -
Hi Terry,
you talk about truth and I consider it a rather hard word, we could discuss long enough if there is such thing guiño. Personal truths may exist but they may ( should ) change as we learn through life.
I consider that wikis and blogs (and forums, cause we could consider a blog as a special class of forum) accomplish different tasks, as you expose. Wiki is a tool to create large hypertext collaborative documents where different minds try to create and consensuate a text while understand each others and create new knowledge while they do it ( doing something called social constructionism). Blog  is a  way of self expression, through comments, permalikns, rss and search engines the blogosphere allows the revision the knowledge created (but within the blogosphere not in the blog itself).
We should not forget about the tools that wikis offer us to  review the process  ( page history,  examination of  navigation, vote for pages,  evaluations,  and discussion pages ) those tell much about what's going on also.
The use of autoresumees tools and so on can be useful, but I believe that for learning is best to read and follow the links and create the knowledge in our mind.
That's my truth, but I've happened to disagree with myself often wink
Ludo


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