Hashtags & Wikis

#HASHTAGS

I think this is a really really awesome way to cruise through twitter posts. I looked up LOST on hashtags and the word is at its peak tagging point every time a new episode airs. COOL! Also, I would like to point out that if you scroll down you can NEVER reach the end of the page because of how many hashtags there are. It just keep re-loading and adding them to the bottom.People generally post what is interesting about the show or what they are severely confused about. This is a common tweet because the show is generally confusing and you never quite know what is going on.

 

I found a Lost wiki while scrolling through the tweets: http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page

Its pretty awesome, but I think the people that contribute to it must have no lives whatsoever. 

Check it out!

WIKIS

I am severely wiki-challenged. I find that a lot of wiki's are hard to navigate through and have varying arrangements and linking styles. This makes it hard to view certain wikis but is not true for all of them. Wikipedia is easy enough to search through as well as the lost one I found. Pertaining to our class work, I think that a wiki is not the best way to communicate because it is so unstructured. I think a blog that is organized chronologically is much easier. Even with Facebook, there is a specific section for videos, comments, discussion, and pictures which directly shows you where to put a certain type of information that you want to share. 

I did find a link to a yoga blog that absolutely amazed me. These were like hardcore yoga practitioners who bragged about doing yoga on gravel. Pregnant women flying around the world to do yoga. All connected thanks to this amazing wiki! There was just so much information and comments and link available. The only thing that still bothered me was that it is again so unstructured. Possibly this is because I am not familiar with the concept of a wiki. It does seem like a perfect idea for people to gather in a community style and share valuable information. The fact that wikis are self governing is also a benefit because unlike a blog or Facebook, you can control absolutely anything about the web page. Nobody tells you a video has to go in a certain area which is great for some, but not so great for others (like myself). 

For businesses the idea of a wiki come with both bad and good sides. Self-governing means that people on the bottom of the food chain are more likely to have serious ideas actually heard. It acts as a third party advocate that makes sure everyone’s information is given a place. At the same time this means that others can edit or use the wiki for not so noble purposes. Misinformation is a large problem that many companies have had when using wiki technology. The link from the class blog uses the example of the LA Times’ blog that was shutdown due to Internet vandalism. 

I found an article that said:

“Wikis are structurally capable of handling conversation, but it is not their forte; instead, wikis excel at collaboration. They are intended to maintain a series of unique documents as their content evolves and to provide an organic means of organizing that information.”

http://www.informationweek.com/news/management/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=167600331

Clearly, if used properly people have seriously benefited from the use of wikis for business. For file sharing they become perfect for rough work and updates, without having to deal with a mass of emails or personal messages.