Knowledge Communiti Es in New Media

8/14/2019 Knowledge Communiti Es in New Media

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What is a knowledge community?

WE ARE THE BORG. The Borg were a fictional race of

people on the TV show StarTrek, The Next Generation.Theywere half human, half machineand other than having vastlysuperior technology, their main

source of information came fromeach individual being connectedto the other. Each Borg was able

to add his or her knowledge to the


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How Knowledge Communities

work Knowledge Communities work much

in the same manner. One person

alone holds a small amount ofinformation. Add two or threemore people and you now havetwice or three times as much

information. Add two or threehundred people and you have aknowledge community filled with

an infinite amount of information.


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The Borg as a knowledge

Community


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Wikipedia A Prime Example

of a Knowledge Community

Wikipedia founded in 2001 is

a collective intelligence. Like the Borg, Wikipedias 14

million articles are writtenand edited by peoplearound the world.


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A knowledge Community at work

Wikipedia is currently thelargest general reference

work on the internet. People add their own

expertise to the collectiveknowledge forming a giantknowledge community.


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English Wikipedia

contributors by country


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Wikipedia online world wide

You can visithttp://www.wikipedia.org/ andview the different language

options for Wikipedia. Currently there are 262

language editions of Wikipedia

; of these, 24 have over100,000 articles and 81 haveover 1,000 articles.[
http://www.wikipedia.org/http://www.wikipedia.org/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wikipediashttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wikipediashttp://www.wikipedia.org/http://www.wikipedia.org/


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Wiki Details

The growth of Wikipedia has beenfueled by www.google.com search

results, about 50% of searchengine traffic to Wikipedia comesfrom Google.

Wikipedia is a non-profit website,however In October 2006, the sitewas estimated to have ahypothetical market value of

$580 million if it ran
http://www.google.com/http://www.google.com/


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Wikipedia uses these New Mediaoutlets to sustain itself:


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Criticism of Wikipedia

Many argue Wikipedia is not ascholarly source forinformation.

Anyone can add whatever theylike to the knowledgecommunity, right or wrong.

Many teachers, professors andacademic institutions ban theuse of Wikipedia forreferences a ers or


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Further Criticism

Fo rm e r E n cyclo p e d ia- -B rita n n ica e d ito r inch ie f R ob e rt M cH e n ry

o n ce d e scrib e d

, W ikip e d ia b y sa y in g

T h e u se r w h o v isits W ikip e d ia to le a rn a b o u t

,so m e su b je ct to co n firm

,som e m a tte r o f fa ct isra th e r in th e p o sitio n o f a

.v isito r to a p u b lic re stro o m,It m a y b e o b vio u sly d irty so

th a t h e kn o w s to e xe rcise

,g re a t ca re o r it m a y se e m,fa irly cle a n so th a t h e m a y

b e lu lle d in to a fa lse se n se.o f se cu rity W h a t h e

ce rta in ly d o e s n o t kn o w is
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_McHenryhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_McHenryhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_McHenry


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In Response to the CriticismWikipedia has developed a complex

multi-layered defense againstmisinformation which includes:

Users checking pages and edits,computer programs that are carefully

designed to try to detect and fix themautomatically or semi-automatically.

Blocks on the creation of links toparticular websites, blocks on edits

from particular accounts, IP addressesor address ranges.

For heavily attacked pages, articles can

be protected or even locked so onlywell established accounts or


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Regardless of

Criticism

Wikipediais still a

multifacetedknowledge

community, possiblythe largest

in the


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Wikipediaa

knowledgeCommuni

ty

By: Gina Barone

Knowledge Communiti Es in New Media

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