In recent weeks, I’ve given the concept of Wikipedia some good thought.  But, to be honest, I hadn’t questioned the authenticity and trustworthiness of Wikipedia until the controversial topic was introduced in last week’s class.  I’ve been using Wikipedia for years now and I’ve had minimal issue with it.  Yes, I have found questionable information and felt the need to do fact checking on my own, but that doesn’t mean that Wikipedia isn’t a great starting point.  But, this is precisely why I’ve never had an issue with Wikipedia- because I use it as a starting point and not as a primary source for research material!  As far as I’m concerned, the main issue with Wikipedia is the users themselves and the lack of knowledge surrounding the intended role of Wikipedia.

We all know that Wikipedia has been a target for good reasons.  It definitely has inaccurate   information and is vulnerable to vandalism and unverified information.  But, at the same time, where is the role and responsibility of the user during all of this?  In my eyes, the accountability lands directly in the lap of each and every Wikipedia user.  Of course, contributors are also held responsible for the information they add, but I think more emphasis and onus should be put on the consumer.  As of right now,  Wikipedia provides a general disclaimer in big black letters that states, “WIKIPEDIA MAKES NO GUARANTEE OF VALIDITY.” Check it out people!   To this end, I do not feel that using verified “experts” to make contributions will make much of a difference.  In fact, a study by the scientific journal Nature found that the errors and misleading statements between Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Britannica were not so different.  In all, Wikipedia contained 162 errors and Britannica had 123.

There’s no doubt that crowdsourcing is on the rise.  Today, there are corporations, small business owners, independent professionals, and non-profits to name a few who are taking advantage of this online production process.  However, while this all seems amazing, don’t think that it goes without its criticisms and controversies.  Check out the translation crowdsourcing mishap that occurred on LinkedIn.

Anyways, I decided to do some further research on some recent crowdsourcing projects to see what’s out there.  In particular,  I found one on Twitter called Twitter tees, where the twitter community submits and then votes on creative tweets for t-shirts.  Based on this process, a new twitter tee is created every week and people can submit or nominate for a chance at $140 or $500.  Pretty sweet, huh?  I think that some t-shirt are a bit silly, but I think the idea is pretty neat and fun.  If you’re an avid twitter user or abuser, then you’ll definitely appreciate these t-shirts.  The second and more complicated project I found was for Netflix.  In this case, Netflix is looking to the public to help create a more accurate movie recommendation system that can help the company deliver more on-demand movies and tv shows.  In exchange for this effort, Netflix is offering a whopping $1 million dollars to the team who can create an automated system that predicts how users will rate films 10 percent more accurately than their current in-house does.  This contest is a great example of companies that are utilizing crowdsourcing for R&D work.  I think this is one of the better, more extensive, and definitely more expensive examples of crowdsourcing.

In both cases, I think crowdsourcing is offering resourceful, legitimate, and creative solutions to a variety of issues a company might face.  At this point, I can’t really find a reason to be opposed to crowdsourcing.. So, Bring on the Crowd!

This class has really shed a new light on social media. In particular, the lectures and readings have opened up new doors regarding the powerful role and future that social networking and social media play in our personal and professional lives.  As I reluctantly admitted in our very first class, I am definitely a Facebook addict and that certainly has not changed; I think Facebook is an incredible tool and I won’t deny it.  However, this class has introduced me to the power and impact of many other social media tools, including delicious, twitter, google reader, and blogging to name a few.

Most importantly, however, is the magnified role and importance that blogging has begun to represent in my own life.  I can’t deny that before this introduction, I thought blogging was stupid.  Alright, maybe not completely stupid, but I was super hesitant.  I just didn’t see the point of blogging unless it was something truly important like politics or business.  I also didn’t understand all of the diehard personal publishers that were writing about their nugatory hobbies and lifestyles.  Up until this point, my stance was ‘ no offense, but I don’t care about your obsession with gossip girls or your monarch butterfly collection- and nobody else does.’  However, this class has unveiled the concept of community and passion that lies behind these blogs and has definitely proved me wrong. This concept of community is what has fascinated me the most.  In particular, reading ‘Say everything‘ by Scott Rosenberg really helped to communicate this idea of a shared public sphere with unique identities and communities.

So, what am I saying?  I’m saying that I feel like a fool eight weeks later!  And, like anything else in this world, don’t knock it until you try it.

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ES