Entry #Two: The Words Continue

Jimmy Wales: The birth of Wikipedia 

Interesting to see the "origin story," as I would state it, of the great empire. I believe that Wiki does have more than one employee now....checks wiki, yes they do. I can't imagine how wiki could continue on with their ever expanding universe with just a single employee. Which brings me to the question of how can they find so many volunteers. Does the world really have thousands of people who like to edit a Encyclopedia for free? The answer to that question is complicated. What I think is, that there are thousands of people who are not only enticed by the thrill of editing articles, but also are drawn to the opportunity to provide free knowledge to all. To be that superhero teacher helping knowledge seekers and to contribute to a project who's world impact is very much understated.  As for the issue brought up near the end, wiki has not gained a good academic standing (in my personal experience) in the academic community. Heck, my advanced research logistics english professor (say that 10 times fast) spent the entire course telling us how horrible wiki is for any and all information. The way I see it, wiki is a good place for quick non-academic answers and a good place to start for academic answers. They are also masters at the craft of crowdsourcing volunteers.

Tiffany Shlain - From Failure to Innovation

It's hard for me imagine a world without internet. The year Tiffany "discovered" the internet I was born, hardwired for the new century. I share a lot with Tiffany's filmmaking beginnings. I too started as a young film enthusiast that reediting existing content to create my own content. Of course instead of old films, I used youtube videos which gave me a larger web of resources. What I take from Tiffany's talk/film is that in order to be a filmmaker you don't actually need to "make" the film. You create a concept, a notion, a abstraction, a conception and then the film that follows is simply a directed display of that concept. Easier said than done, yes, but the idea of vast community coordination to express one or many ideas is astounding.

This has nothing to do with anything.

Entry #One - The Beginning

TEDxNYED - Mike Wesch 

What I found particularly engaging about this video was Wesch's experience of media's interaction with "untouched" humans. I can complete see how something so simple as a census can change a culture so much. Heck, I remember how much a simple message board dictated my personal interaction with others in 6th grade. Yes, two different interaction stories, but they are related because media effects relationships, cultures, and learning. I also agree fully with Mr. Wesch's idea's and commentary on student learning. I received my pre-college education in a unconventional format. When I entered university, I was a bit dismayed/dumbfounded to see so many students only caring about the test and had no interest in gaining new knowledge/ asking questions.Unrelated Side note: the "social" graphic he kept displaying irritated me because of the pixelated and stretched out logos. Seeing similarities between Mr. Wesch's idea of learning and our class' approach, I am excited to see how this course unfolds. I am also a bit apprehensive as it relies a lot on the student's willingness to engage in their learning. Time and time again I see students just sitting there existing for just a letter grade, but I have full hope that this class will break the mold and produce/contribute to something awesome! 

Keynote Speaker: Michael Wesch

I found this video the most interesting (despite Wesch's dry presentation). Youtube is probably the social channel that I consume the most. It is my MAIN source of entertainment. Just like Wesch says, my web interaction is controlled (or crowdsourced) by others. If a video gets more likes, it will show up on my homepage and then I will most likely consume it. As much as I would like to believe that I "discover" video gems and web creators, the reality is the masses (and complex nerd code) have controlled how that content came to my screen. The interwebs is vast, I'm glad that my tiny selection is crowdsourced for me.

Linda Hill Ted Talk 

"A Leader's job is to set the stage but not preform on it."

I wish my "elders" (I hate that word) or people older than me would take this advise from Ms. Hill. Innovation starts from the bottom up. My peers (especially those in the same field) often feel that our voice in not heard. We are just young grasshoppers trying to "break" into the business and we feel don't have any innovated or valid points until we've climbed the ladder (brought the coffee) and gained "real world" experience. What I believe is missed out in this system is fresh, untainted, un-corporatized, ideas. Minds without experience baggage. Cause don't we all wanna work for a place that treats humans as a collective of geniuses.