Why Wikis sucks for post production environment?

Capturing the essence of document interactivity

Manoj Ranaweeramanoj@ ranaweera.name

07769734491http://www.manojranaweera.com

Disclaimer

• Personal Opinion

• Very Subjective – only one of many views

• Does not reflect company policies of edocr Ltd, ebdex Ltd or any client organisations.

Wikis are great• Collaborative

– Rank does not matter

• Community of Users – Removes geographical barriers

• Knowledge Repository– Captures knowledge of community

• Everyone owns it – yipee!– No real hierarchy

How many Wikians does it take to change a light blub!

• One

• But, anyone can change it back

• Could end up with the old light bulb again and again

• Creating constant light on light off situations

• Not to mention coloured bulbs – red!

We love

• Man, I thought I had seen it all on Wikipedia … but check this out. Another great example of Wiki-intellect at work — see the talk page tracking the article on Benazir Bhutto (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Benazir_Bhutto). Look at this idiot’s comment, entered today:

• “ B e c a u s e I a m n e it h e r a n y ra c e o r re l ig io n re la t e d t o t h i s a r t ic le n o r c o u ld I c a re le s s w h o B e n a z ir B h u t t o is (w h o I t h o u g h t w a s a m a n w h e n I re a d t h e n e w s ), I ’ v e d e c id e d I a m t h e p e r f e c t c a n d id a t e t o o b je c t iv e re v ie w a n d e d i t t h i s a r t ic le a n d s o I s h a ll ! . : D a v u M a y a : . 0 1 : 4 3 , 1 9 O c t o b e r 2 0 0 7 (U T C )”

• My reponse, also on the talk page:• “ S o b y y o u r o w n a d m is i s o n , y o u k n o w n e a r ly n o t h in g a b o u t t h e t o p ic

m a t t e r , a n d y o u c o n s id e r y o u rs e lf t o b e t h e ‘ p e r f e c t c a n d id a t e t o o b je c t iv e [ s ic ] re v ie w a n d e d it t h is a r t ic le ’ … W o w . O n ly o n W ik ip e d ia …—P re c e d in g u n s ig n e d c o m m e n t a d d e d b y 6 5 . 8 0 . 2 9 . 1 8 9 2 2 : 5 5 , 1 9 O c t o b e r 2 0 0 7 (U T C )”

• Davumaya responded, and established that, indeed, he is actually serious in what he says. He truly believes that ignorance of a topic is an asset, not a liability, when refereeing content. Apparently gross ignorance is even better. He’s so clueless that he doesn’t even know the gender of a person who’s been a public figure on the world stage for over two decades (doesn’t he ever watch the news? or does he spend all his waking hours watching Nick-At-Nite?) … and he believes this makes him the “perfect” editor.

• Wow. Just … wow. You don’t get that stupid from a mere congenital defect. Ya gotta work at it.

• There are far too many Davumayas on Wikipedia, which is why I don’t even try to discuss Wikipedia’s flaws with die-hard Wikipedians anymore; it’s like trying to have a rational discussion with the “aliens abducted Elvis” crowd. I must say, though, this is a first — I’ve never seen Wikidiocy presented quite this nakedly before. But on the positive side, guys like him give me a lot of great material to show my students.

“Because I am neither any race or religion related to this article nor could I care less who Benazir Bhutto is (who I thought was a man when I read the news), I’ve decided I am the perfect candidate to objective review and edit this article and so I shall!”

So Wikis sucks (sometime)• Lack of hierarchy matters

• Different personal agendas cause conflicts

• Accuracy becomes questionable

• Non questionable culture is dangerous

But Wikis are here to stay• Wikis has a place

• Great when used correctly

• Should be part of the tool kit

• Not the only tool

Post production• Wikis can be used to create a

document

• With other tools – desktop publishing

• Use best of breed for post production collaboration, e.g. edocr

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Manoj.ranaweera@ edocr.comhttp://www.edocr.com07769734491

Manoj Ranaweera(Founder and CEO)

making document interactivity a reality

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