scholarly journals Wikipedia's Success and the Rise of the Amateur-Expert

2014 ◽  
pp. 1157-1181
Author(s):  
Christopher Sweet
Keyword(s):  
Open Source ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
Knowledge Creation ◽  
Traditional Methods ◽  
Online Encyclopedia ◽  
Wisdom Of The Crowds

The Free Online Encyclopedia, as Wikipedia calls itself, is a radical departure from traditional encyclopedias and traditional methods of knowledge creation. This chapter is an examination of how a community of amateurs on Wikipedia has challenged notions of expertise in the 21st century. It does so by first looking at the roots of Wikipedia in a phenomenon known as the “wisdom of the crowds” and in the open source software movement. The reliability of Wikipedia is examined as are the claims made by major critics of the project. Throughout, epistemological questions raised by Wikipedia are addressed.

scholarly journals Wikipedia's Success and the Rise of the Amateur-Expert

2015 ◽  
pp. 1318-1342
Author(s):  
Christopher Sweet
Keyword(s):  
Open Source ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
Knowledge Creation ◽  
Traditional Methods ◽  
Online Encyclopedia ◽  
Wisdom Of The Crowds

The Free Online Encyclopedia, as Wikipedia calls itself, is a radical departure from traditional encyclopedias and traditional methods of knowledge creation. This chapter is an examination of how a community of amateurs on Wikipedia has challenged notions of expertise in the 21st century. It does so by first looking at the roots of Wikipedia in a phenomenon known as the “wisdom of the crowds” and in the open source software movement. The reliability of Wikipedia is examined as are the claims made by major critics of the project. Throughout, epistemological questions raised by Wikipedia are addressed.

scholarly journals Wikipedia’s Success and the Rise of the Amateur-Expert

2012 ◽  
pp. 13-36
Author(s):  
Christopher Sweet
Keyword(s):  
Open Source ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
Knowledge Creation ◽  
Traditional Methods ◽  
Online Encyclopedia ◽  
Wisdom Of The Crowds

The Free Online Encyclopedia, as Wikipedia calls itself, is a radical departure from traditional encyclopedias and traditional methods of knowledge creation. This chapter is an examination of how a community of amateurs on Wikipedia has challenged notions of expertise in the 21st century. It does so by first looking at the roots of Wikipedia in a phenomenon known as the “wisdom of the crowds” and in the open source software movement. The reliability of Wikipedia is examined as are the claims made by major critics of the project. Throughout, epistemological questions raised by Wikipedia are addressed.

Wikis as an Exemplary Model of Open Source Learning

2011 ◽  
pp. 681-689 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Fitzgerald
Keyword(s):  
Open Source ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
Knowledge Creation ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Information Communication Technologies ◽  
Web Pages ◽  
Information Communication ◽  
Free Spirit ◽  
Exemplary Model

In their simplest form, Wikis are Web pages that allow people to collaboratively create and edit documents online. Key principles of simplicity, robustness, and accessibility underlie the wiki publication system. It is the open and free spirit of Wikis fundamental to open source software (OSS) that offers new contexts for learning and knowledge creation with technology. This chapter will briefly consider the role of technology in learning before discussing Wikis and their development. The emerging literature on the application of Wikis to education will be reviewed and discussed. It will be argued that Wikis embody an exemplary model of open source learning that has the potential to transform the use of information communication technologies in education.

Knowledge Creation in Commitment-Based Value Networks in Multinational Organizations

2008 ◽  
pp. 28-39
Author(s):  
Leslie Gadman
Keyword(s):  
Open Source ◽  
Multinational Corporations ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
Knowledge Creation ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Software Projects ◽  
Value Networks ◽  
Multinational Organizations ◽  
Networked Economy

The digital networked economy has gone global and is reshaping traditional business models. “Free” and “open source” software (Raymond, 1999) along with more recent successes in the private, public and social sectors offer a vision of a radically new globally networked economy. This economy is characterized by new sources of value creation and competition as barriers to entry are lowered and substitution made easier. It also requires a more stratified, localized approach to the marketplace (Hart and Milstein, 2003) to meet more specialized demands from customers and the societies and environments within which they live. These challenges have implications for almost every aspect of a firm’s strategy and business model, especially its ability to leverage these networks to create value through innovation. Yet, most multinational firms are ill – equipped to take advantage of the knowledge creation derived from high value relationships with suppliers, complementors and customers. This chapter shows the importance of developing a corporate strategy which takes into account ways in which an innovation focus must integrate with installed business processes. This chapter considers the challenges associated with knowledge disclosure, diffusion and utilization (Snowdon, 2002; Spinosa, Flores and Dreyfus, 2001) across value networks and concludes that while successful examples exist in “Free” and “open source” software projects (Raymond, 1999) commercialization of innovation becomes more challenging when increasing levels of personal and financial commitment are required (Mauer, Rai and Sali, 2004). Choosing the most appropriate value networking strategy can have serious implications for success. This chapter adds to studies on knowledge creation and knowledge transfer in multinational corporations by proposing a conceptual model of commitment based value networking strategy. It is hoped this will contribute to future research by offering a theoretical foundation upon which this research may be based and explains why and under what conditions people in commitment based value networks share knowledge.

scholarly journals Patchwork Prototyping with Open Source Software

2011 ◽  
pp. 126-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Cameron Jones
Keyword(s):  
Open Source ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Work Experiences ◽  
Traditional Methods ◽  
Software Applications ◽  
Collaborative Applications ◽  
Commercial Off The Shelf ◽  
Functional Prototype ◽  
Paper Prototyping

This chapter explores the concept of patchwork prototyping: the combining of open source software applications to rapidly create a rudimentary but fully functional prototype that can be used and hence evaluated in real-life situations. The use of a working prototype enables the capture of more realistic and informed requirements than traditional methods that rely on users trying to imagine how they might use the envisaged system in their work, and even more problematic, how that system in use may change how they work. Experiences with the use of the method in the development of two different collaborative applications are described. Patchwork prototyping is compared and contrasted with other prototyping methods including paper prototyping and the use of commercial off-the-shelf software.

Wikis as an Exemplary Model of Open Source Learning

2009 ◽  
pp. 1459-1467
Author(s):  
Robert Fitzgerald
Keyword(s):  
Open Source ◽  
Open Source Software ◽  
Knowledge Creation ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Information Communication Technologies ◽  
Web Pages ◽  
Information Communication ◽  
Free Spirit ◽  
Exemplary Model

In their simplest form, Wikis are Web pages that allow people to collaboratively create and edit documents online. Key principles of simplicity, robustness, and accessibility underlie the wiki publication system. It is the open and free spirit of Wikis fundamental to open source software (OSS) that offers new contexts for learning and knowledge creation with technology. This chapter will briefly consider the role of technology in learning before discussing Wikis and their development. The emerging literature on the application of Wikis to education will be reviewed and discussed. It will be argued that Wikis embody an exemplary model of open source learning that has the potential to transform the use of information communication technologies in education.

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