Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Week 7, Things 16 & 17

So this week I discovered wikis, and also that my font changes a lot. I like that.

Wikis, I discovered, are interesting but not particularly useful unless complete credibility can be achieved. There's a reason they won't let us use Wikipedia and other wiki sites when writing papers; information can be tampered with too easily through the wiki system. By having an system of open editing, wikis are subject to vandalism and false information. For example, recently someone sabotaged the Wikipedia page of a 90s television actor, claiming that he had died. The page went unchecked for days before someone noticed, and by then, flowers and sympathy cards had been sent to the actor's home.

With that being said, the Wikis that I checked out (including Book Lover's Wiki and Library 2.0 in 15 Minutes a Day) were reputable and fun. It was interesting to see all the book reviews, and the Library 2.0 had some good information about different types of browsers (Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox), as well as web tools like blogs, social networking, and other things we have learned about so far in 23 Things.

I also went to the Sandbox wiki and read through a few entries before adding one to the Favorite Fun Memories entry. I thought that it was cute and a great way to share thoughts (another one of my favorites being Random Thoughts).

All in all I think Wikis are useful for entertainment and not so much information unless they are kept in check, like Library 2.0.

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