I’ve just been checking out Wikibooks, a project of the Wikimedia foundation that aims to create free books. Like Wikipedia, anybody can contribute to the books either by adding new material or editing existing books. Those books that are complete or voted ‘good enough’ are also available as PDF documents and even print editions created [...]
Tag Archives: collaborative
10 Free eBooks About Web 2.0
October 31, 2006 – 11:14 am
I expect you’re fed up of waiting for my book to appear. I know I am. In the meantime, stay up to speed and save money with ten free e-books about Web 2.0 and Social Media. In no particular order…
1) Social Media or, “How I learned to stop worrying and love communication†by Australian PRs [...]
The Wisdom of Pervs?
September 22, 2006 – 3:40 pm
Regina Lynn at Wired News is often asked where to find better porn. Thankfully, the brave new world of Web 2.0 is ready to find the answers for her with a wisdom engine for smut… Wonder if Michael and Pete will cover this?
The result is the fledgling MoSex Index (NSFW), an attempt to combine the [...]
Man Bites Mainstream Media
September 21, 2006 – 2:13 pm
In breaking news err… yesterday, NewAssignment.net has received a $100,000 grant from Reuters to hire an editor. NYU journalism professor Jay Rosen explains the project’s agenda:
The idea is to draw “smart crowdsâ€â€”groups of people configured to share intelligence—into collaboration at NewAssignment.Net and get stories done that way that aren’t getting done now. By pooling their [...]
Wikipedia Forked-up?
September 17, 2006 – 3:22 am
Larry Sanger, the first editor-in-chief of Wikipedia, and allegedly the originator of the plan to make it a wiki, has announced that he plans to fork the project. The new branch will have no anonymous changes and expert editors. The project will be called the ‘Citizendium’. (Hang on, I know there are some PRs among [...]
Stock Tip: Bet on Collective Intelligence
September 16, 2006 – 10:08 am
As I’ve observed before, marshalling collective intelligence, or the wisdom of crowds, on the Internet isn’t always very easy. Social news voting sites like digg are susceptible to social influences. Wikis are also weakened by this: do you really want to edit what your boss says? One way, though, to generate the necessary conditions (independence, [...]
How to Make a Wise Crowd
September 13, 2006 – 2:25 pm
USA Today takes a pop at internet techies citing the Wisdom of Crowds, suggesting that the recent digg and wikipedia controversies may show the idea is fallacious. David Freedman takes another swipe in ‘What’s Next: The Idiocy of Crowds‘ published at Inc.com, saying that on the internet, “the scum tends to rise to the top”.
As [...]
Encyclopaedic Knowledge
September 7, 2006 – 1:03 pm
Aaron Swartz contributes some fascinating analysis to the study of who writes Wikipedia. Founder Jimmy Wales has often stated that a small number of people make the largest number of contributions. He told Stanford University that “the most active 2%, which is 1400 people, have done 73.4% of all the edits,” for example.
Swartz decided to [...]
Digg to Repair Holes
September 7, 2006 – 10:36 am
News voting site digg is to re-adjust its story promotion algorithm to give less weight to votes from friends. Founder Kevin Rose writes on the digg blog:
This algorithm update will look at the unique digging diversity of the individuals digging the story. Users that follow a gaming pattern will have less promotion weight. This doesn’t [...]
Now We Are 2.0
September 5, 2006 – 11:20 am
You know we’re in trouble when people start comparing the Web 2.0 trend to postmodernism. In my general experience, it’s a sure sign that the conversation is about to disappear up its own backside. However, praise is due to Dr Paddy Byers who very cleverly teased out some of the links in a piece he [...]
