Thursday 22 March 2012

Editing Wikipedia Stubs

The Wikipedia topic I chose to edit was from a topic I've always found interesting - the concept of "superfoods" and what the term truly means in terms of health and nutrition. When I found the stub, it had a total of ten sources, however there wasn't much information about the superfoods themselves, and the study of their properties. I added some information about the controversy behind superfoods and how they are added to many supplements - a tool used more as a marketing strategy than anything, especially in weight-loss pills that line the shelves of health food stores such as GNC and many others. I believe people should be aware of the research done on the supplements they're consuming, in order to spend their hard-earned money wisely. They must educate themselves on what they're fuelling their body with, because misconceptions are very common among health-food products.

It took a bit of trial and error in order to get the hang of using the Wiki mark-up codes. It took me twenty minutes just to figure out how to align a photo to the right side of the screen! However, once I got the hang of the Wikipedia mark-up language, this turned out to be a surprisingly fun assignment! It's also beneficial to include links - blue words that are used to reference to key words, which link to other relevant Wikipedia articles. This helps readers out, especially when they come across words such as "anthocyanins," one of the antioxidants present in blueberries.

I added some information about berries under the header "Potential health effects", and the studies which have been done on them. I also created a section called "Dietary supplementation" which refers to the role of flavonals present in green tea, and how green tea extract is often added to weight-loss supplements. I also added two photos, one of wild blueberries - which are rich in antioxidants compared to cultivated blueberries. The other photo I added was the chemical structure of epigallocatechin gallate, also known as EGCG. This is the flavanol present in green tea which has been the focus of many recent studies.

I took several screen shots of my Wikipedia page becase initally, two of my entire paragraphs got deleted and edited over! My caption under blueberries described the anthocyanins present in wild blueberries, and within one day my caption had been edited by someone else to state that blueberries only contain Vitamin C - which is completely false! I was so frustrated. They also altered some of my paragraph about supplementation. This made me realize how unreliable Wikipedia truly is, because anyone can edit your work and write what they want. I noticed that Jessie's blog post described similar feelings towards Wikipedia, especially when she referred to inaccurate editing, which is especially problematic when a student is trying to learn about a new topic!
Here are some screenshots of my article after I finished editing:
Superfood Wikipedia article screenshot #1 (2012). Taken by Lindsay Gervais [digital image], March 22 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superfood
Superfood Wikipedia article screenshot #2 (2012). Taken by Lindsay Gervais [digital image], March 22 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superfood

Monday 5 March 2012

Vander Wal's Model of Attraction

Folksonomy is a term coined by Thomas Vander Wal in 2004. Vander Wal worked with the world wide web, and focused mainly on social media and how it can be put to professional use. The term "Model of Attraction" metaphorically depicts how internet users are interconnected through tagging. By searching a simple keyword, we enter what Vander Wal (2001) describes as a "magnetic field" of information . The vast amount of information available online can be quite overwhelming. It's a huge relief to type in a keyword, and find tons of information about a certain topic, whether I'm doing research for a school assignment or a personal cause!

For example, one of Twitter's upgrades over the years has been the implementation of a search bar. I can simply type in "vegetarian recipes" and suddenly I have access to public Twitter accounts focused on providing vegetarian recipes. I'm also shown a feed of the most popular and recent tweets which mention the words "vegetarian" and "recipes" throughout the 140 characters. The concept of tagging brings people and their information together over the internet. I'm instantly connected with a community of vegetarians - people who are like-minded and have values which are similar to mine!
Figure 1. Vander Wal's technical description of folksonomy

Vander Wal, T. (2007). Dual Folksonomy Triad [image], Retrieved March 5 2012, from http://www.preoccupations.org/2007/10/thomas-vander-w.html

The fact that folksonomy was coined so recently goes to show how the world wide web truly has grown in the past decade! Although the word "tag cloud" doesn't sound very professional, this online form of classification has helped businesses thrive on a global basis. When we used Delicious and Wordle in class, I loved learning how to summarize our class blogs, job advertisements, and even online articles into a mass array of words. The concept of using folksonomies is a bold and effective alternative to traditional categorization - it prevents wasted time, which everyone has experienced countless times while surfing the web (I know it's not only me!). The creation of folksonomies over the internet has linked together almost every form of social media, which will allow us to use various techniques in the professional world. On the left hand side of my blog, I've embedded a Delicious tag cloud and a Twitter feed - one example of how multiple forms of social media are interconnected.

Folksonomies will benefit our generation in the future, especially because Generation Y has been so influenced by technology - honestly, I can't even imagine what life would be like without Facebook now. Many focus on the negative aspects of Facebook, such as how it has become so addicting. However, Corvida's blog post on ReadWriteWeb's online technology blog highlights some of the positive effects that social media has had on our generation. Technology has been ingrained into our lifestyles, and the rate of information flow doesn't seem to be slowing down anytime soon! As described in Shanelle Mullin's post in Spark Boutik's social marketing blog, Generation Y have essentially become chameleons. We rapidly adapt to changes in social media and technology, to the point where social media advertising techniques must be well thought out in order to catch our attention. Danielle Lu's blog post caught my eye, as she described her first experience with Pecha Kucha in our ALES204 lab earlier this semester. Pecha Kucha is another ideal marketing tool for grabbing the attention of an audience - except this audience just so happens to be in person, not over the web!

Here's an interesting video which describes how tagging has influenced marketing strategies:



Storyworldwide (2011). The Future of Advertising [informational video], Retrieved March 5 2012, from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NyXzir2yKg


References
Vander Wal, T. (2001, March). Model of Attraction (or Information Magnetism). Retrieved March 5 2012, from http://vanderwal.net/essays/moa1.html