Weller suggests that decentralisation, democratisation and bottom-up processes characterise the world of Web 2.0. Using your reading in the course thus far, provide one or two examples that would support this claim and one or two examples that would modify or counter this claim.
This paper seemed almost naive in its enthusiasm. Web 2.0 is not divorced from the commercial realities of the rest of the world. The technology, knowledge, skills and confidence to create content on the Web seem likely to remain confined to the already (relatively) wealthy and well educated.
As I thought of each supporting example I realised that it contained a counter-example as well.
For instance, citizen journalism should be the ideal example of 'democratised' creation of content. Except that each site has editorial policies and guidelines, is subject to legal and other regulation (PCC for example) and can ultimately be shut down by the corporate owners of the site and its supporting technology (for example Reporter.co.za).
Wikipedia is another such example - except that the collaborative creation of content has proved so contentious and the need for authority so great that the operators are considering how to regulate this.
Delicious again should be the ideal example - a case in point of 'filtering on the way out' (Weller and Dalziel, 2009) to give authority to a source (rather than peer review etc before publication). However despite having 5.3 million users as at 2008 it is not clear how many of those users generate the majority of the content. The lack of standardisation of tags means that it is a rather hit and miss means of providing an indication of reliability of information.
I may be being cynical (lawyer's disease - sorry) but I think 'outsourcing' is a better word than 'democratisation' here. Corporations have used a model that enables them to generate content, site traffic and revenue without paying for the labour that creates it.
How all this relates to education is another matter and I feel a rant coming on so I'm going to stop now.
A1 the Challenge for educational institutions
Weller suggests that decentralisation, democratisation and bottom-up processes characterise the world of Web 2.0. Using your reading in the course thus far, provide one or two examples that would support this claim and one or two examples that would modify or counter this claim.
This paper seemed almost naive in its enthusiasm. Web 2.0 is not divorced from the commercial realities of the rest of the world. The technology, knowledge, skills and confidence to create content on the Web seem likely to remain confined to the already (relatively) wealthy and well educated.
As I thought of each supporting example I realised that it contained a counter-example as well.
For instance, citizen journalism should be the ideal example of 'democratised' creation of content. Except that each site has editorial policies and guidelines, is subject to legal and other regulation (PCC for example) and can ultimately be shut down by the corporate owners of the site and its supporting technology (for example Reporter.co.za).
Wikipedia is another such example - except that the collaborative creation of content has proved so contentious and the need for authority so great that the operators are considering how to regulate this.
Delicious again should be the ideal example - a case in point of 'filtering on the way out' (Weller and Dalziel, 2009) to give authority to a source (rather than peer review etc before publication). However despite having 5.3 million users as at 2008 it is not clear how many of those users generate the majority of the content. The lack of standardisation of tags means that it is a rather hit and miss means of providing an indication of reliability of information.
I may be being cynical (lawyer's disease - sorry) but I think 'outsourcing' is a better word than 'democratisation' here. Corporations have used a model that enables them to generate content, site traffic and revenue without paying for the labour that creates it.
How all this relates to education is another matter and I feel a rant coming on so I'm going to stop now.
Vikki