Finch (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} tom_servo) wrote,@ 2004-10-28 23:21:00 |
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the rise of the wiki
I've always loved the idea of the wiki, a database that makes it easy to upload information that can later be added to/edited by other users. Wikipedia is the prime example, but now they are being used on a much smaller scale to effect meaningful change within businesses and smaller institutions. The benefit for business is that one uploaded piece of information on the wiki can have nearly infinite contributors add to it, replacing what would have otherwise been a string of hundreds of emails and drafts. Several pieces of software have been developed to make business applications easy to implement.
So what does this mean? Hopefully soon we will have a whole new medium through which to share ideas. Think of the applications in the scientific community...data could be instantly uploaded to a wiki and analyzed by any number of people, all of whose comments would be added to the page. Peer review would be instant, and mistakes could be easily corrected before they caused problems. And just as in the open source community, code and other things posted in wikis could be easily modified by outside users, making the process of bug fixing and code development a matter of days, not years. The greatness of the idea stems from the combination of so many peoples ideas. One persons can fudge facts, but with thousands even the most seemingly obscure mistake can be recognized.
The wiki is the prime example of a so called "Ant Algorithm". What one person can do, a hundred can do better in exponential less time. A problem that one person physically could not solve, lacking the necessary information to understand all the angles, could be answered by a group each having a small amount of the required knowledge. That is also the beauty of my old favorite Thisisnotporn, the purpose of which is to test out such group thinking...with incredible results. The puzzles are incredibly complicated, but in no time flat messageboards across the internet lit up with people coming together to solve the puzzle, out of the neccessity of others participating. In relatively little time, the groups worked their way through the maze of trivia that one person might never have been able to solve.
It is incredible, really...this is the kind of interconnection I've always hoped for. Enough of this, enough cultural mainstreaming, and we will be ready for the next few leaps in human interconnection. So yeah...despite Kevins fervent defense...I still have hope, bizarely.
I've always loved the idea of the wiki, a database that makes it easy to upload information that can later be added to/edited by other users. Wikipedia is the prime example, but now they are being used on a much smaller scale to effect meaningful change within businesses and smaller institutions. The benefit for business is that one uploaded piece of information on the wiki can have nearly infinite contributors add to it, replacing what would have otherwise been a string of hundreds of emails and drafts. Several pieces of software have been developed to make business applications easy to implement.
So what does this mean? Hopefully soon we will have a whole new medium through which to share ideas. Think of the applications in the scientific community...data could be instantly uploaded to a wiki and analyzed by any number of people, all of whose comments would be added to the page. Peer review would be instant, and mistakes could be easily corrected before they caused problems. And just as in the open source community, code and other things posted in wikis could be easily modified by outside users, making the process of bug fixing and code development a matter of days, not years. The greatness of the idea stems from the combination of so many peoples ideas. One persons can fudge facts, but with thousands even the most seemingly obscure mistake can be recognized.
The wiki is the prime example of a so called "Ant Algorithm". What one person can do, a hundred can do better in exponential less time. A problem that one person physically could not solve, lacking the necessary information to understand all the angles, could be answered by a group each having a small amount of the required knowledge. That is also the beauty of my old favorite Thisisnotporn, the purpose of which is to test out such group thinking...with incredible results. The puzzles are incredibly complicated, but in no time flat messageboards across the internet lit up with people coming together to solve the puzzle, out of the neccessity of others participating. In relatively little time, the groups worked their way through the maze of trivia that one person might never have been able to solve.
It is incredible, really...this is the kind of interconnection I've always hoped for. Enough of this, enough cultural mainstreaming, and we will be ready for the next few leaps in human interconnection. So yeah...despite Kevins fervent defense...I still have hope, bizarely.
