Introduction to Online Authoring

The following is a brief summary of the major online authoring/communication tools that we have talked about in our group meetings. The best way to get a glimpse of these services is probably to play around with them a bit.

Wiki
(Description adapted from Wikipedia)

A wiki is a group of Web pages that allows users to add content, as on an Internet forum, but also allows others (often completely unrestricted) to edit the content. In essence, the wiki is a vast simplification of the process of creating HTML pages, and thus is a very effective way to exchange information through collaborative effort.

Wiki is sometimes interpreted as the abbreviation for 'what I know, is', which describes the knowledge contribution, storage and exchange up to some point.

Wiki Example
This page is, in fact, a wiki page. Here are some things to try:
 * Click on the "edit" tab (on top). This page is where you can edit the article. Try it and hit the save button on the bottom. You can't screw up because every revision of the article are archived.
 * Click on the "discussion" tab. This brings you to discussion page where all your thoughts about the actual article can be expressed. Technically, it is basically another wiki page.

Other Examples

 * Wiki as an Encyclopedia. Wikipedia. This is the famous encyclopedia project where the content is open for anyone to add/delete/modify. They claim that "nonsense and vandalism are usually removed quickly, and their creators banned." Try looking up for Media Lab and see if you agree with their description. I.e. somehow only Ted Selker's research is highlighted.
 * Wiki on specialized topics. Starwars Wiki. This wiki tries to collaboratively create the most comprehensive information about the Starwars Saga.
 * Wiki as a documentation tool. Swiki Documentation Page. Those who know Squeak also knows that it has a reputation of having bad documentation. The swiki site is an effort to allow Squeak users to help out.

Weblog or Blog
(Description adapted from Wikipedia)

A weblog or blog (derived from web + log) is a web-based publication consisting primarily of periodic articles (normally, but not always, in reverse chronological order).

Blogs range in scope from individual diaries to arms of political campaigns, media programs, and corporations. They range in scale from the writings of one occasional author (known as a blogger), to the collaboration of a large community of writers. Many weblogs enable visitors to leave public comments, which can lead to a community of readers centered around the blog; others are non-interactive.

Blog examples

 * Blog as news. Slashdot. This is a blog that serves mainly as a news source. I believe every single geek in the world knows about this site. Each topic is usually heavily discussed and commented (try clicking on the "read more" link at the end of each news item).
 * Blog as a status update. Nickels for Katrina Blog. This blog is a section of Nickels for Katrina website. They use it as a way to update their donors what they have been doing.
 * Blog as a personal diary. Anindita's Blog. This is part of Anindita's website that allows her to write whatever she wants to say about her daily life. Visitors can leave comments for each posting (the link is at the end of each post.)
 * Blog with rich media. Roballet. This is a video blog Glorianna put together for the Roballet project. Here's Glorianna's description of it. "[It] is a video blog that was created as close to real time as you can get and still edit video. Basically, we shot, edited and posted scenes of the Roballet workshop daily ... What I found amazing was how well it organized what we collected and how well it encouraged a disciplined approach to shooting and publishing.

Internet Forum
(Description adapted from Wikipedia)

An Internet forum is a web application which provides for discussion, often in conjunction with online communities. Older forums date back to around 1996, following the newsgroups and bulletin board systems which were widespread in the 1980s and 1990s. Popular discussion topics include technology, computer games, and politics, but forums are available for any number of different topics.

Internet forums are also commonly referred to as web forums, message boards, discussion boards, discussion groups, or simply, forums.

Examples

 * Harry Potter Community. This board allows you to ask or say anything about Harry Potter to the existing community. You often get thousands of replies.
 * GoGo Board Discussion Group. This is basically a mailing list for the gogoboard community. People usually submit posts and receive replies via e-mail (after subscribing to the list) but it can be done via the website as well.

Hybrids
There are, of course, places where many of the services above are combined together in one place. They are usually presented as a portal. An example is the following:


 * Empowering Minds Project. The site is created for school teachers and students who are exploring the theme "Story, Myth, and Legend" with digital technologies. It contains a shared web-board, forum, media database, and downloadable documents.