Bashirkhan

**__Analysis & Reflection__**
1. When I first heard about the ideology and the concept of the wiki space, I was very doubtful as to how well it would work. I felt that the lack of restrictions and the abundance of rights that normally administrators have were given to the users which might cause a problem. I assumed that there were chances of a lot of abuse to transpire but after becoming acquainted with the service, I found that it was used rather responsibly and for the most part people contributed quality and accurate information. There were not cases of people misusing the service to alter others work in a negative way. In addition, the very fact that it doesn’t follow a hierarchical structure makes it more user friendly. You can communicate with all kinds of individuals, especially your peers and fellow classmates that makes the learning experience fun. And because anyone can post anything at anytime, the speed of the communication and the response time becomes faster.

I expect to fully take advantage of wiki and its capabilities. Although I do expect my self to make contribution to other people’s work, but I limit myself from making major changes or taking on a new direction because I feel that it would take on a different context, thus misconstruing readers of the artists original intent. So more often then not, I like starting my own posts. However, I do elaborate, add my opinions and facts to someone else’s idea all within the same context as the authors original intent.

Even though I haven’t used wiki in any of my previous courses, I am required to use it for two different courses simultaneously in this semester. I do believe that it helps me to adapt and get used to wiki much faster as it is an integral part of both the courses. Yet, it does become overwhelming at points to keep up to date, work on the community building aspect and continuously make contributions to the wiki since the expectations are twice as much. Some parts begin overlapping and create repetition. For example, for both courses, this very reflection needs to be done which are precisely the same questions but I have to do this over for both!?!

I feel the idea of contributing to the wiki is indeed not very difficult, but I do think that initially there is some hesitancy when you are starting to contribute and adjust to this “collaborative learning environment”. But once you get past learning and familiarize your self with the wiki, then all the sudden it becomes rather simple and easy. Then modifications and additions become almost natural as opposed to a ‘task’ that you once considered it before.

2. Usually the postings that I choose to contribute or alter are usually the ones that are related to my interests and the ones that I think I am capable of contributing quality and accurate information to. As for making changes, once again I am very careful about changing people’s work that might alter or hinder the point they are trying to make. Also, when the author has written something, it’s organized in a specific way so that limits the degree to which the alteration can be made since changing them can clutter up the structure. Nonetheless, I do make changes to others work and those changes are mainly typos or an elaboration of the point following the original context. Although, I haven’t found any major changes done to my work, I do check my own postings and notice that people have made slight changes to the work. So I wouldn’t know exactly how I would feel about people making major changes to my work, but I do imagine that it heavily depends on the type of alteration that has occurred. When I write a piece of work, I have a specific idea in my mind that I try to communicate to the best of my ability. And if and when someone comes around and changes the work, two things can happen in their approach to modifying your post. One, they can pursue your idea from the perspective that was originally intended and in that case I would appreciate the edit, although this is rare. The second one, which is the more common one, is that they have a different take on the subject which is not exactly from the way I initially thought of it, so it can become slightly frustrating, but nothing overbearing.

3. One of the challenges or limitations that I experienced while working with wiki is that often times I found it very difficult to make contributions to other people's work. The reason being is that at times, the authors of the work had a specific perspective from which they were wrtiting from, although its easy to absorb but becomes very difficult to elaborate or add to the existing text. At times, after making the changes or additions, the changes became rather apparent either because of the context or were in clear contrast to the existing writing structure that made the document seem unorganized.

The biggest advantage or benefit that I gained from participating in the wiki is probably the ability to adapt or work with a large group. I think it teaches you to learn from others and be very open minded to other people's opinions. Because of the process of understanding other people's work to add or elaborate on really forces you to grasp what the other person is trying to communicate and gives learning a new meaning. Atleast for myself, I would say that it creates tolerance for other's opinion and forces you to really put yourself in the minds of others and be more appreciative or critical in other ways of the opinions of others.

Although I do think that the community building aspect went well for the wiki, I do think that because of the abundance of wiki users in the class, to facilitate the process a little more, there could have been more opportunities created to allow the more novice users to add or improve their community building skills. The more advanced or experienced users were able to get in to the wiki and create banners, obtain and develop their community building skills and marks before the other's got a chance to. So just to get the novice users started, the group organizers or teachers could create some minor pages that contribute of the community building process.

Assignment II, WIki post: Online Piracy

Contributions: Dec. 2, Major changes to msn messenger page. Dec. 3, Changes and additions to the Prophet Muhammad cartoons. Changes and additions to Social Networking websites.

Dec. 4, Added a link to the main page of final review page for better access.

Dec. 5, Created the banner for Understanding Comics and Key concepts. Added a link to the interesting websites.

Dec. 7, Added a link to the test feedback page on the homepage. Added comments and feedback of the test. Fixed up the FAQ question.

Dec. 8,Added content/elaborated to Advertising Added content/elaborated to Friendster Added content/elaborated to gender roles in commercials.