A wiki is a collaborative project that focuses on a topic (or all topics) in a purely factual way. A wiki brings together users who have a particular expertise and interest in any given topic. A good wiki article includes sources, and spirals information out, starting with the most basic information, and moving more into depth as the article progresses. This is important because often people use a wiki to get general bit of information, and others can look at each section in order to get more specifics, if they so desire. A lot of thought should go into how a wiki will be read by a user.
My concern with this project, is that a key quality of the success of a wiki is that it is voluntary. This allows for only the most motivated people to contribute, which, has obviously led to incredibly accurate information in places like Wikipedia. Who is more motivated to have good information on a topic than an expert? We have been assigned a chapter of the text book containing information for which none of us are experts. I believe through this project we will get a good sense of the editing and self correcting process that wikis can provide, but I don't believe we will have the feeling of contribution to our area of expertise.
My concern with this project, is that a key quality of the success of a wiki is that it is voluntary. This allows for only the most motivated people to contribute, which, has obviously led to incredibly accurate information in places like Wikipedia. Who is more motivated to have good information on a topic than an expert? We have been assigned a chapter of the text book containing information for which none of us are experts. I believe through this project we will get a good sense of the editing and self correcting process that wikis can provide, but I don't believe we will have the feeling of contribution to our area of expertise.
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