Assignment5BairdSmithCunningham

Assignment5BairdSmithCunningham

To Do

• please work as a group (minimum: 2 members; max: 6 members) and submit one answer as a group (clearly identifying the members of your group)

Task 1

Wikis fall into this category. Compare Wikis as meta-design environments with another meta-design environment of your choice for which user-generated content is the defining feature.

Task 2

Analyze in detail the following two Wikis:

• the Wiki used for our course with which you are (or at least should be) very familiar http://ngw.cs.colorado.edu/
• the Wiki for the research community in "Creativity and Information Technology" at: http://swiki.cs.colorado.edu:3232/CreativeIT

Group response

1. Members of the Group

Will Baird, Matt Smith, and Dara Cunningham

2. Task 1

Part I: Dara

"Wikis are Web sites that can be edited by anyone who has access to them" (Boulos, Maramba, and Wheeler, 2006). "Meta-design extends boundaries by supporting users as active contributors who can transcend the functionality and content of existing systems" (Fischer, 2007). As systems that require user design input, wikis by definition are meta-design environments.

Some examples of other meta-design environments are games that allow users to add levels and characters, such as World of Warcraft and Halo 3, interactive comic strips, like toonlet, and social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace. Like Wikis, these venues are designed to encourage users to provide their creative input and to actually contribute to the overall design of these sites.

Boulos, Maged N. Kamel, Maramba, Inocencio, and Wheeler, Steve (2006). Wikis, blogs and podcasts: a new generation of Web-based tools for virtual collaborative clinical practice and education, BMC Medical Education 2006, 6:41doi:10.1186/1472-6920-6-41 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6920/6/41

Fischer, Gerhard (2007). Meta-Design: Expanding Boundaries and Redistributing Control in Design, Center for Lifelong Learning and Design, University of Colorado, Boulder http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/~gerhard/papers/Interact-2007.pdf

Part I: Will

Wiki's are presentations of "fact" or at the very least they are documentation tools that are created as knowledge repositories. They are created to be shared as a reference to add value to their intended community audience. This means that they have the potential to disperse false data or proliferate myths. By contrast many other meta-design environments are much more benign, as their intent is entertainment. This is the case with many of the games which facilitate user generated content. They are not utilized for greater understanding of reality. However the social networking sites are used as a reference to increase knowledge of what is true in the non digital world. However it is clear who is the author of the data being presented. Therefore the visitor (data consumer) can evaluate the accuracy of the data based on their experiences of how trustworthy the author has been. Wiki's are a medium that is vulnerable to the lapses of morality found within the anonymity of the mob mentality.

Part I: Matt

A meta-data design environment is intended to give end users as much control over a program as the developer originally had to manipulate the environment to the arising needs. This entails the original developer to anticipate this need for change and give the end user the right tools to be able to manipulate the data. A few examples of meta-data design environment are the online social systems such as Facebook and MySpace that have begun to allow for user generated applications to better incorporate social interaction between certain interest groups. Another example of a meta-data design environment is the iPhone app store, which allows any user (who wants to learn the cocoa basics) can create a application with the simple interface builder offered by apple.

Task 2

Part II: Dara

The class Wiki is frustrating to me. As an online instructor, I'm accustomed to online environments that encourage interactivity, like eCollege, Blackboard, and WebCT. Online courses tend to provide multiple areas for users to interact with each other and require users to interact with each other. While the CU Wiki purports to be interactive, there are no areas really set aside for this. Even the "Discussions and Help" area is rarely used and doesn't seem to be regularly monitored. In contrast, the Creative IT Wiki is fairly closed to user input. I could not find a spot to enter anything without an appropriate log-in.

On the technical side, the class Wiki is easier to navigate and post to (at least, as a student in this class). Although, it's taken me more than a month to realize the site takes HTML codes as well as it's odd proprietary tagging. The Creative IT Wiki has an odd interface. The "wheel" design seems to be an attempt to provide a Web-like look but it's not intuitive to at least this user.

On the social side, the class Wiki is more hierarchical and less inclusive (by design). The Creative IT Wiki at least looks like an inclusive site although, in practice, it seems to be fairly exclusive.

Part II: Matt

The class Wiki has it's good points and its bad points for me. I like that it allows us to be able to receive our assignments and post them, but it doesn't really give us a place like Dara said to have an interactive environment in the sense that we can communicate with each other. We can edit pages and upload assignments and read others responses but there is not really a way for instant interaction to communicate with other groups or even group members to collaborate on topics.

The Creative IT Wiki is pretty but is very closed off to editing without a log in which limits its ability to grow outside of the users with log ins needs and wants. Which in one way is good because no one outside can come into the wiki and delete everything or change everything, but the downside is that no one can add useful things to the wiki that could be beneficial to the members with log ins.

Part II: Will

I appreciate the visual organization of the CreativeIT Wiki start page. It quickly and efficiently orients the visitor to the components of the site. I believe both wiki's have room to improve, evolve, and mature as tools to inspire. As we discussed while studying the life long learning section, successful learning tools of the future must spark inspiration or add value to the evolution of a niche. Without this their viability diminishes quickly amongst the the oceans of sites competing for the attention of internet users.

I believe that both wiki's feel sterile. They would both benefit from connecting with the user. Something that reaches to the user. This functionality is best accomplished on a gradient. Something obvious and simple to personalize the wiki for the user and spark the engagement that comes from a sense of ownership. The user should associate with the site. Simple aesthetic customizations that will differentiate between users. Then there should be wiki nurtured group morale. There are individual profile pages; there should also be group profile pages. Also there should be interest groups such as education, gaming, non-CS majors, etc. These extensions will add value to the users experience and therefore contribute to the viability of the wiki in the future.