Feedback on the work with Wikis
Wiki is the most vivid example of how people can work collaboratively “being in full mutual consent” with each other, because there is actually no choice and opportunity for them to reserve their copyrights on the writings or somehow prevent others from editing their stuff. And i found this feature of wikis very attractive and exciting, because it allows to feel yourself a real editor and bring your judgement on someone’s work ))) Of course, there is also another side – as well as you can be in the role of editor, on the contrary your own text can be edited by somebody else. And that’s funny! I don’t feel upset about being corrected or “interfered”, because i’m just very curious of what people can find doubtful or just add their own understanding and thoughts on the topic, so i can myself view the story from another perspective. 
Personally, i have made such an “invasion” on Zarina’s entry and contributed a paragraph right in the middle of her story That was very pleasant for me (i don’t know ab. her reaction, because i think she haven’t noticed that yet…) as i felt like an actress or a mask who has to play a role when i tried to fit her writing style and counterfeit my own “handwriting” ))) Fortunately or not, my answer on whether Wikipedia is a reliable sourse or not wasn’t editted
Experiencing Space online
Today the notion of “space” is getting more and more popular in respect to Internet and the virtual life it has created. We were talking of cyberspace as a new virtual reality with one significant feature that actually doesn’t allow equating virtual space and cyberspace – that is the scale each of them encompasses that distinguishes these two terms. According to Rob Shields, “virtual environments are human-scaled while cyberspace(s) are imagined as city-sized or even global”. But I like to refer cyberspace as virtual because to my mind it is best to describe the sense of “how it is to live online”. It exists only in our mind and is possible due to our imagination that is true phenomena! J Thanks to it we are able to create this hallucination of parallel life and activities that organize individuals into groups, communities, and finally make up the whole “second” world where there are no boundaries between people and still everyone is unique.
I have experienced such feeling of illusory being in another place while sitting before the computer screen when I visited one interesting forum – Center of Gravity, and decided to enter into conversation. That was so exciting that I even stopped to control my emotions and forgot about everybody in my real physical environment J. I felt myself being in a circle of my friends, and the fact I didn’t know anybody from the forum made me even more excited and anxious about the correspondence. The one thing I think is really great in the forum and many other activities online is the absence of physical presence that to my mind makes people free from everything that constrains them in real life. Space online creates invaluable conditions for people to be totally sincere, open-minded and brave to say everything that is not always permissive in face-to-face relationships… Until you are not Ozzy Osbourne or so J
Wikipedia – believe or not to believe?
Personally, I like Wikipedia. I like how entries are structured, I like its multilingual interface and the way users can turn from one entry to another following the relevant links. So, I think that it is a great depository of information of any kind for person that seeks knowledge on whatever topic. But if to speak of Wikipedia as a ground to make a judgment or some statement on then a question of its credibility arises inevitably.
Wikipedia has been often criticized for its “open source” approach to compilation of the entries. And the distrust seems to be completely understandable and make sense when you find out that the source is being written by different unknown people you have no idea about. How to trust in such a free accessible and easy updating source?
To my mind, there is a level of trust you may put on Wikipedia, because its main peculiarity of empowering any volunteer to write on his own can be also viewed as a strength – as we know each coin has two sides J So, on the one hand, if to think radically, it looks like an absurd to believe some crazy man (who knows?) who probably decided to rewrite the history of his country. Of course, I’m not claiming that every person has such a rich imagination, but nevertheless it’s possible. So, if this happens then the same “open sourceness” transforms into strength as it leaves an opportunity to all other people to check and edit the mistake. Thus, this process of checking and editing once makes the entry perfect. This can’t be reached by print editions so frequently; they only can be republished from time to time. I’ve read an interesting article “Why believe Wikipedia?” where the author brought a few fairly sensible reasons answering this question. First, he mentioned the nature of human judgment – people tend to believe information that is logically organized, linguistically correct and sounds right… Also, people always compare the information with their already stored knowledge on the subject. Secondly, a very important argument which I’ve already touched – a long edit history of an entry. “It becomes yet more credible if the discussion pages are long and rich”. And thirdly, a remarkable feature of Wiki’s pages is its “warning signs” that make readers be aware of possible mistakes and, thus, make Wikipedia more trustworthy. Because the more suspicious is that one who doesn’t doubt at all… J
Talking with Murager about Music
I can’t be precise in indicating the time from which Music as an art was transformed into showbiz (as we know it today, because i think music could serve as a way to earn money in all times) but i just dare to assume that the process started a few decades earlier. And from that point people started to debate on many topics that sprung out of its new sense: whether it is an Art or just Money, or whether phonogram should be accepted or denied, and so on. Personally, i’m a big music fan as many (if not all) people and these questions touch me strongly. The question of Phonogram is vital for modern music industry, because this new information technology created a possibility to become a “musician” almost for all comers. That wasn’t acceptable in old times when only really talented people could perform on the big stages without any sound accelerators and magic phonogram. What we see today is that the conditions of becoming a “musician” are changed – no more is needed a great talent, other resources are getting more value… From here i’d like to add that people actually no longer strive to become an old-fashioned “musician”, but to my mind many are fascinated with the new stylish activity of being a Star But this is another story.
But coming back to the question of phonogram i’d like to say that even it has become a smart tool to make a person sing , i still believe that not everybody can reach the top and be recognized by the public as worth of admiration. Because when a person announces itself an artist, immediately it takes a huge bulk of responsibilities: before its public, media, producers, and finally – himself! And nowadays show business demands much more than just to be a singer. Performer must conduct a whole Show – with singing, dancing and other special effects, which makes it a whole industry. That’s why i often understand and sometimes support using the phonogram on the concerts by the artists, because i realize what a big deal is to sing and dance simultaneously for an hour and half. Murager in his comment to the topic of Live Music vs. Phonogram said that another reason why many singers have to use phonogram is that there is a “lack of professional music equipment in our country, thats why organizers of concerts ask musicians to peform with (+)soundtrack”. This is also a serious obstacle of technical and financial matter if to think of Kazakhstan and many other countries where Showbiz is less developed.
Of course, i guess everybody would support Live music and Live performances instead of “Dead”, but i think that attitude to the Phonogram should be more flexible and peaceful as there are a lot of other challenges that lie on the shoulders of modern artists.
Ken Dala Center – the best community i’ve ever been a part of!
When we started to talk of communities – what they are and how it is to be a part of one – I found myself confuse
d a little bit because didn’t find any to tell about… In one of the previous entries dedicated to communities I presented myself as a member of music studio, which I decided to call a community. That was the most immediate response of my mind on the task. )) But few days later when we in the group continued our discussion on the communities suddenly a thought came to me: I know a community, real community I am a part of (or at least I was..)! That is Ken Dala Center – a business center where I was working for a year and a half. Of course, I don’t mean the building even though I like it very much (nine-storey blue-gray office building) but people in there. That was my first serious job (right after school finished) where I had a position of receptionist – on the first floor, not like a secretary at one particular company, so I knew everybody.
Well, I think people tend to remember everything that occurs to them for the first time. So did I! J But this is not the only reason – all in all that was an amazing time in my life that impressed me greatly. )) It gave me huge experience and useful “lessons”: that doesn’t relate to my direct official duties, which I got used to pretty soon (after 3 months – perfectly) but refers to employees, visitors, “big bosses”, and my direct chief – on the whole, people that was the biggest problem to deal with. Today I call them community J.
Actually, relationships with people usually seem to be the most important task for a person. For me at that time it was so frightening as I felt myself an alien and absolutely alone and lost little girl. I had a lot of responsibilities and data to learn by heart for the shortest period that looked impossible… And plus to everything related to duties I had to distinguish between people: whether a person was a visitor that had to be served in one way, or an employee that was restricted to enter freely and I was there to make him use his personal pass-card which made them all angry with me! That was HORRIBLE to balance among them! Thanks God, it lasted not very long. But even at that time I experienced blank despair and absolute readiness to be fired. There were several dreadful precedents on the threshold of condition described right before. I forgot to open turnstile (a little side door for bosses only) before my boss a few times and he while in full confidence that it was open hit himself against it… First time, he smiled, second time – he said nothing, and third time – his eyes told me “say Good bye to your job!” But strangely enough I stayed there for the year and more J As I have said, in the beginning it was hard to contact people – they all were so gloomy and indifferent, but I continued to “hello” and “how are you” them, so finally the wall was broken, and sunny days began! I felt myself very useful and happy there, because people started to give me feedback)) I felt that I was doing something important for them. Some people told me that they went to work with pleasure because knew at least somebody was happy to see them J
I can talk and talk, but don’t want to risk and loose your attention (if haven’t yet), so coming to conclusion I just want to say that being a part of some community is a wonderful thing, of course on terms that you are in good and friendly relationships with other members, because if so then it becomes a place where you feel yourself happy and cheerful. I think that true sense of happiness occurs only when a man does something for the others. It doesn’t have to be material, but just a smile can be enough J
Community around Neweurasia.net
Every weblog creates a kind of community around. It may consist of only few people, if, for example, the weblogger has just started, or it may attract thousands of users like the most popular ones. We can judge on the type of community of a weblog if study some of its features or characteristics that make it possible to be connected and communicate with the online audience. So, if you are interested in the question “what kind of people are visiting, using, and contributing to a particular blog” it’s not a problem to make an investigation upon. J You may look at four main characteristic features: self-description, tools, networking, and participation. We’ll take the news site – neweurasia.net to examine its community.
Well, self-description is somewhat a “visiting card” of a site where “it” describes its mission, establishes relationships with the audience and depicts its chief features. You’ll know more from Kristina if follow the link. J Then, there is a set of tools that are given in use of the site in order to involve and develop its community. Julee talks on this. And, of course, as in every community – will it be off-, or online – there are particular rules of participation promoted either by the owners of the site, or evolving naturally through the process of communication that guide the policy of the site and create a specific “virtual society”. For this visit Victoria. J
The last feature that my turn is to tell about is networking. While observing the neweurasia.net site and its networking system, which means the collection of links to other sites, I’ve made several remarks. First, I saw that the links are intelligently grouped in sections: Blogroll, Weblogs, News, and some others. Thus, I’ve concluded that one thing that is promoted among the community is interactivity among users, as there is a list of weblogs that becomes another place for members “to meet at”. Then, what I liked is the section of links to other news sites, which made me think that neweurasia.net supports objectivity and openness in its community. Also, there are links to the sources of official documents under the section “Government” that are primary sources of Law and its interpretations. After all, I want to say that neweurasia.com serves the community of people interested in the Eurasian region and who strives to get essentially verified and objective information.
Aigerim and her Community :-)
I continue to talk about communities, how they relate to each other and what differences occur among them. Today (if to be exact – 5 minutes ago) i’ve visited a weblog with an interesting subtitle – “Nothing related to Aigerim K.“ (don’t believe – that’s just a HOOK!!!)) where she was talking of communities she belongs to. I found some interesting ideas and thoughts of being a community, which i share myself too. Each person is a part of some community, and to my mind the difference is only in the scale of the communities one might think of. For example, somebody may feel himself lonely and isolated, but as long as this man is living in the society he IS in its community. So, he is just not awared of this fact! But if we’ll speak of smaller size communities in which people are definitely aware of their affiliation, then it becomes more obvious what a concept of community means. Turning back to Aigerim i’d like to say that her community is a bright example of such a “small definite community” where she communicates with a group of people with the same interests and tastes in music – “me and my friends like to listen Rock music,and Brit pop” she says. Also, she mentioned another community that surprised me, because i have revealed my own membership of it! That is of “amateurs of photography”.
What community are you from?
Usually, when talking of communities I imagine some large group of people sharing common interests and believes that makes this group be gathered and have a sense. But now a question was given to me concretely and in my mind I responded: Oops… J Because, actually, I don’t belong to such a big group, and I had no ideas at first. Fortunately, “at first” lasted not long and I found one answer.
My hobby is Music, and I am attending vocal classes two times a week, which has become my regular place to visit. And so I thought why shouldn’t I call it to be “my community”? Well, first of all, I’m an official member of that community that surrounds my vocal teacher. Secondly, I have the same interests and share many beliefs my dear teacher has. And, thirdly, I appreciate those prospects and goals people from my community want to achieve in the future. This all makes us be organized and support each other if there is a proper chance.
What is Journalism?
To my mind, many definitions can be found to characterize Journalism, because it has a wide range of activities that makes people think of it differently from many perspectives. Some may concentrate on print journalism associating it with making stories and writing them in a “friendly interface”, another will conclude that it’s a cool job thinking of adventures of paparazzi that are endowed or even blessed to be so close to celebrities that seems to be an amazing opportunity. There are a lot of images that may occur in mind if to think of journalism as a profession. But I think that we should find some fundamental function or characteristic, which serves as a basic concept and core sense for many directions of Journalism. And it’s not difficult to find out this “link” called Information. I think nobody can avoid mentioning word “information” when talking of journalism. To be sure, we can look at definition of Journalism given by Wikipedia.com: Journalism is a discipline of collecting, verifying, reporting and analyzing information gathered regarding current events, including trends, issues and people.
I have heard such an expression: “Who owes information, owes the world”. This statement is mostly vital and actual in business structures where to be the first often means to be informed first. And journalism here plays great role of being a medium between information and audience, which provides different public groups with relevant information.
My online beat
You know, I can’t stop getting surprised by the variety of different services one may get on the web! And here I’m going to talk about that one I have found out recently – creating a BEAT. Well, my comment can be that it’s a very convenient and useful tool to keep track of particular information you are interested in without necessity to go through all other media sources and cover a bulk of material.
What’s for my own beat then I have subscribed to many sources, again with accordance to my interests. It is located on Bloglines.com where everybody has an opportunity to create a beat for himself. To take a look of mine follow the link ® My Bloglines Blogroll. You’re welcome! There you can find info on different themes: from News, Literature, Music to Animal world, Scientific investigations, Smart Business, and others. It seems that I didn’t concentrate on some particular topic, which is of major interest for me, and I really didn’t. Here I could say that may be I am a kind of generalist, but it would be too boring and unlike me, so I prefer to be called just curious and enamoured of life J The sources I’ve chosen are mostly well-known editions with strong reputation, or that ones I liked for their contents and appearance.
