The “power law distribution” or “long tail” phenomenon, as seen in behavior online on the Wikipedia, suggests that the concept of an average user of wikipedia is meaningless. Support your answer: how do you think a local, “JMU only” version of the Wikipedia would compare to the worldwide version? Would it be very similar? Higher quality? Less quality? Why?
A JMU only wikipedia site in my opinion would not be very successful. I feel as though a JMU only site though would allow for many individuals to provide and share their knowledge the site would also lead to a lot of misinformation. Though college students can be very knowledgeable there are those individuals that will ruin it for others, by making the website nothing more then a joke providing wrong information just to get a laugh. Furthermore I feel as though a JMU only website would also lead to biased information on certain subjects, and the lack of wide diversity would also impact the information on the website. The lack of age and experiences would hinder the website.
Redmond Weather Oregon
1 year ago
You cite some good examples of why a JMU only wikipedia might not enjoy the success of the big daddy counterpart.
ReplyDeleteHowever - one reason - is weak - the "ruin through jokes" reason. People do the same on the Wikipedia, but it is well policed by those who care. I have no reason to believe JMU faculty and students wouldn't do the same - if the community found value in the system. If, however, it was just an assignment to post a few articles each semester, then... yes... the jokes and bad facts might just well flourish.