Practicum #8 - Kathryn Messenger

In my last practicum, I decided to edit two large Wikipedia pages that contained vast amounts of information. I edited the pages "HIV" and "Obesity". In finding material for these pages, I had to read through recent articles so that the material I added would be relevant and not currently covered by other editors. After searching through Google News, I decided on a new study about obesity and a new release of findings on HIV. Finding and skimming through articles was surprisingly easier than I expected but it was more work than I would normally put into editing a Wikipedia article. After finding the information that I thought was relevant, I had to read through the Wikipedia article in order to decide where the information would fit. Editing itself was easy, since they input the new toolbar and since I had already edited other pages. Editing a semi-protected page was a lot more interesting and fun that simply editing a small page because the potential for viewing is much higher and I felt like I was participating more with Wikipedia because there were so many other editors on the same page.

In a continuation of the last practicum, all three articles that had not been detected still did not post any warnings about potential fraudulent. I decided to remove the falsified material because I doubt the material would have gone detected for a significant length of time since the pages were probably not viewed often if at all.

Overall, I learned a lot about Wikipedia and editing pages. I was somewhat surprised at the amount of work that one has to put in to edit simply one Wikipedia page. I do not know if Wikipedia could continue on it's current format simply because editors have to continually have the motivation to edit pages. It will be interesting to see how the politics of Wikipedia will change as users lose the initial "wow" of editing the site.

Peter Practicum 8

Final Blog! Senior.com and their web 1.0 style has not seen any new comments or members so i stopped looking at that. Seniors barely look at facebook or talk about anything other than being grandparents. But Snabbo has been a great website for me. I have gotten four members on my 50's film group in 3 weeks which I used as a good sign because as I've come to learn that seniors go online periodically not constantly like many of my friends. As a community the members consider the website as a part of their identity by using words like our when talking about the website or we when trying to organize. Even when people have never met face to face, like me and all my friends on this website, I feel like I know them and am a part of a niche group of people. I know Barbara better than anyone. She loves to talk to new people and help them start projects. My friend John likes old movies, because he joined my group, and loves music. He is a very media focused man. And a new friend ebass, which stands for eric bass, excepted my friend request because he is an avid Badger fan(if only he knew). We had a small conversation yesterday about the RoseBowl and how fun the season has been. He asked me what I had studied in Madison in the 60's and I told him Poly Sci, which in those times was very exciting.
This experience showed me that seniors wanted to be in this community and form strong bonds.
I also noticed how their experiences in the 50's and 60's were always compared to today's in my conversation with John. He compares music of the 60's and his experiences with the way people have now. His experiences aren't just memories anymore but they are ever changing ideas. Of course the music back then was better than it is now, but he couldn't have thought that back then so I thought that was a cool way these experiences change with time. I hope in the future this community will become more popular because i think its cool that seniors have reached a time in history where finding lost friends and loved ones is easier than ever and snabbo can make that happen. This has been insightful and fun over the course of the semester, and hopefully when technology changes when im old i can change with it like these people have.

Practicum 8

For my final practicum post, I've decided to reflect on Kongregate as a whole. When I first logged on to Kongregate, I thought about how I was really lucky to get a gaming website and not something that I wouldn't enjoy working on for a semester. The site itself reminded me a lot of game sites I used to frequent like Addictinggames.com. Unfortunately, I spent a lot of time playing a lot of the single player games, which I regret doing because it wasn't until later in the semester that I started to really get into the online multiplayer aspects of Kongregate. I was really interested with the challenges that Kongregate offered. I thought it was a very unique way of getting people to play certain games while also rewarding them with participation and completion badges.

Once I started playing the multiplayer games, I realized there was a whole new area of Kongregate that I hadn't discovered yet. It was interesting to me to see how the people interacted with each other in the games. Because a lot of the games were MMOs with lots of people playing at one time, I can understand how people might make "friends" with other Kongregate users and set up chats and times to play with them or other things like that. But another aspect of the multiplayer games are the ones that are more head-to-head based. While so much of Kongregate has to do with social networking, it was interesting to play people head-to-head since often times they didn't make me want to add them as my friend.

One thing that I started to play around just recently was the actual development of a game. Kongregate offers a number of tutorials, which are meant to help new developers get started by explaining what the steps are to develop a game and how the software used to develop it works. While the tutorials were very informative, it seems like you still need some amount of experience with computers to be able to figure it all out. I played with the program for a few hours and it was not coming along, but I think that if you were to spend enough time working on it and going through the tutorials, you would be able to figure it out to the point where you could at least make a very basic game.

All in all, I really enjoyed participating on Kongregate. I played a lot of fun games and have developed a much greater respect for the people who design and develop the games that I spend countless hours playing.

Practicum #8 - Jordan (Final Thoughts)

For my final post, I've decided to reflect on how Reddit and Digg have changed my perception of the Internet and of other things related to the Internet.

For Reddit, it has in a way become my go-to website for finding entertainment on the internet. It really covers every spectrum of what can be done on the Web - news, commentary, funny pictures, funny videos, people giving their opinions on everything, and personal stories. I think the strength of Reddit is that the website really lets the users determine everything. In a way then, it is the ultimate Web 2.0 site. But not just anyone can get noticed on Reddit. A submission or comment has to be truly unique or democratically popular for it to get any notice. Overall, Reddit is a website that is sure to provide a nice entertaining break in the day.

Digg, on the other hand, is simply a worse version of Reddit. The users do control the content, but the organization is handled poorly, resulting in a final product that doesn't feel democratic. It really is a site where everyone is just yelling at no one. Also, almost every post on Digg appears a day after it appeared on Reddit.

Final Essay Promts...

... are up! Look under "Assignments."

Happy studying, and good luck on all your exams this semester!

Practicum #7 Online Support Groups

When I initially began the practicum project, I joined two support groups. One was www.dailystrength.org and the other was www.experienceproject.com. Since my presentation to the class several weeks ago, I have stopped actively participating in ExperienceProject. While I do check in every week, none of the discussion topics or forums have changed since October and the most recent posted topic received no responses from members. ExperienceProject seems to be a way for people to identify with general experiences rather than offer support to each other. Most users have many "experiences" that they subscribe to on ExperienceProject and these tags collectively form an individual's online identity within the community.

Conversely, DailyStrength houses a more active community and the interface is much easier to navigate. The members of this group range from people considering to be vegetarians to strict vegans. Their reasons for becoming vegetarians include animal rights, environmentalism, and health-related issues. Discussions progress daily and range from new recipes, to ethical debates, to venting frustrations, to sharing information about new products, events, facts, and ideas.

I think the interface and layout of DailyStrength fosters the popularity DailyStrength over a site like ExperienceProject to any person seeking an online support group. ExperienceProject is arranged so the posts you see upon entering a group are under the heading "Vegetarian Stories & Experiences". Here, individuals publish personal stories. Discussion is delegated to a small box several scrolls past the boundaries of your home screen. In Daily Strength, the discussion box is centered in the group's home page, and to the right recent group activity is posted in the side bar. By giving visual predominance and easy access to the discussion board, I think that Daily Strength encourages members to read others posts, which in turn instigates discussion. I personally found DailyExperience to have more confusing layout with distracting sidebars advertising activity within other groups. One thing I've learned from this course is the multitude of online communities out there that most people never stumble into. I think that ease of use, layout, and graphics all play a role in determining the popularity, and ultimately the success of, online support groups like the one I am part of.

Practicum #6 Online Support Groups

The one real friend I have made in my vegetarian support group is ChronicIL. She sends me "virtual hugs" and always responds to my discussion questions. Her answers are thoughtful, rational, and eloquent. She noticed in my profile that I live in Madison and immediately connected with me over the vegetarian cuisine options available here. Two weeks ago, I visited the African restaurant recommended by her: Buraka. This tiny whole in the wall is wedged between two of my favorite restaurants on State: Kabul and Husnus. It's street front display is a single glass door with a neon sign. I had passed it probably hundreds of times, but always chosen a guaranteed and familiar option instead. Admittedly, I would have never ventured to Buraka if ChronicIL hadn't suggested it as having delicious, veg-friendly food. Although I had considered stopping there before, I could never convince my friends to go their on a whim. But with this new advice I was able to convince not one, but two to join me.

I've expressed frustration with the redundant discussions and group polarization within my support group. However, ChronicIL's offer of advice has actually benefited me and helped me regain some faith in the purpose of groups like this. Although I've never had a true, synchronously mediated conversation with ChronicIL, and all I know about her is her gender, age, and location, my dailystrength.org group connected me to her based on a common interest. Because I have so few "real" friends and family members who are also vegetarian, I have really come to value ChronicIL's companionship. Furthermore, because my interactions with ChronicIL online influenced my actions offline, my virtual community extended into my physical reality. Pretty cool. I can assume that people who are members of more legitimate support groups (disease, addiction, ect.) are also able to experience this transcendence of realities by implementing advice or habits learned within their respective online support groups into their offline lives.