Information ecologies

Before reading this, i had never heard of the term information ecologies. When first hearing the word it sounds complex but is quite a simple concept. I suppose that our writing class is even an information ecology. I was not aware that many everyday things such as libraries are considered information ecologies.

Wiki travel is an information ecology because it is a system of people using technology for a common interest and goal. People are free to edit each other's post about a certain destination. Our class is working together to add to the Kingston Section of Wiki Travel

Information ecology that i am apart of are things such as wikitravel, a forum i belong to called niketalk.com and i supposed like stated previously, our class could be considered an information ecology

Wales Wikipedia Response

I was most interested in the questions Wales was aksed abut the credibility and accuracy of Wikipedia. In highschool i was always told never to use wikipedia as a source and should even avoid it as a reference altogether. Im not sure if this interview allowed me to agree or disagree with those suggestions. The fact that Wales claims to be "anti-crudentialist" is suprising, seeing that he is the founder of a encyclopedia website. He claims that him and the community are focused on quality, yet he praises the fact that a gifted highschooler can edit wikipedia, im just not sure how i feel about that. While it's good that people around the world can share their knowledge, it's really unfair to say that they are so focused on quality.

I have always questioned what I am reading on wikipedia, and after seeing this video i think i might question it even more. When asked about how he felt about the critics on the accuracy of wikipeida it seemed that Wales sort of avoided the question, saying that wikipedia is ever progressing and growing.

Despite the controversy over the accuracy and credibility of Wikipedia, there is no denying that is certainy a staple in cyberspace for lack of a better word, and that it is a very unique and progessive concept that allows people all over the world to share their knowledge.

Response to Wurman

Since there was no thread in the forum sction for our response i decided to respond here.

I really enjoyed reading Wurman. He seemed to be a very interesting, and had a very different way of thinking. It is not often that someone is willing to admit their ignorance, let alone embrace it as Wurman does. I find it somewhat comedic how frank he is about his own ignorance, calling himself "an empty bucket." Perhaps he was being a little harsh on himself? Though i do applaud him on recognizing that there is so much one can think thy are learning, but are really just taking in repeated knowledge from someone else, from someone who may or may not truly understand it.

I really like Wurman's way of the thinking and how he recognizes that one only really truly learns something if they an explain it to others, which is often, in my opinion very hard to do.

Wurman says "But the most essential prerequisite to understanding is to be able to admit something when you don't understand it." I completely agree with this statement. Often times people are apprehensive to admit their ignorance on what ever topic or situation, for what ever reason, be it fear of being looked down upon or even for the sake of maintaining our own ego, and perhaps even because it is simply human nature. We are all guilty of it at some point and Wurman happens to admit it and embrace it.

I find it ironic that Wurman became a teacher, seeing that he describes himself as being ignorant, but it seems like he would be a very interesting professor.

Brainstorm

Topic: There are many topics I can think of that i would potentially like to center my blog around, I am having trouble narrowing it down to what would be most appropriate, being an athlete my initial inclination would be sports, but i figure that's pretty generic and not very academic considering this is a college course. Im a film/communications major so perhaps a place where people could come to share their homemade vidoes/movies, even photography and talk about different aspects of film and media in general, these are only some general ideas that i will most likely make more specific

Audience: My blog would be geared toward really any demographic that has any interest at all in what ever i choose my topic to be, even people who don't have interest who would like to get know about the topic.

Personality: I would definitely want to be laid back and very welcoming, often times people feel intimidated by some topic they don't have much knowledge on, this is what i would like to eliminate, create an environment where any one can come and read about the topic and comment on.

Titles.

I would have to wait to choose my topic before i could come up with a clever topic,

right now i suppose it stands at enthusiast blog?

More to come.