[[My student Id Number is 0917687, My Wikipedia username is signyh. I use the English wikipedia version
1. What if anything surprised you the most about the Wikipedia ? What surprised me most is the enormous magnitude of encyclopedic information I can access in one place, the constant editing process of the information and the collaborative way of working and communicate with others in this encyclopedic webworld. The users are not talking together in that sense rather distributing information to each other, working together in a collaborative and constructive environment were the location of the users does not matter. The Wikipedia editing policies gives you a trustworthy feeling towards the information you are working with at each time. The links related to the articles give the users an enourmous opportunity to seek endless information about various topics derived from the topic youchose first. From a cultural point of view, since everybody in the world can contribute it gives nations and communities a valuable opportunity to get to know cultural differences when dealing with the same topic. You can create knowledge within a group where members actively interact by sharing their unlike experiences and different values, with each other.
2. What uses can you see for this technology in a corporate setting ? What does it take for it to be successful ?
Wikipedia is a website that enables easy creation and editing of number of interlinked webpages. The content on Wikipedia is powered by wiki software. It is often used to create collaborative wiki websites, to power community website and corporate intranets and in knowledge management systems. It is also a powerful tool for individuals who wants to engage and contribute in writing constructive material from which other people can gain.
We can say that this technology can in many ways be useful in a corporate setting. First to mention when employees are working together in groupwork which involves researches, collaboration and interactions, it is valuable to be able to approach references and information on the same platform. In that way you can be working together in a seperate locations and still gain mutual performance. One employee can simply edit the common and often complex text , others have written and in that way produce an output wich everybody in the group have contributed to. And you can track wich groupmember has contributed and who has not. The groupwork evolves gradually in a constructive way with relevant text and arguments.
Wikipedia is a very good tool in the corporate settings of the academic world were people get paid for doing reasearches and analyses. In other businesses and corporate settings you have to be very precise about how you are using wikipedia as a worktool. You as an employee can simply spend to much time seeking information. If you have not a clear goal on what you are seeking, Wikipedia can be a time consuming tool.
When doing reasearches you can seek for others who are working on the same reasearc topic as you and share with them valuable knowledge , and vice versa.
What it takes for it to be successful you have to know how Wikipedia works, know how to use it and of course be open minded about sharing your own information with others. Wikipedia only works if you as well as others share information. The information you create must be written with sources buildt upon an honorable and trustworthy sources and you have to use all your rational feelings when creating information on Wikipedia.
It is not a successful method to create infomation that can harm other persons. Wikipedia can be a negative tool for businesses/ and persons who have negative images on the market based on the fact that everyone can write negative comments which can be manipulated for the company or the person involved. That is why the procedures and management of how the input is written is the most successful part of Wikipedia.
3. For wich kind of businesses and technologies can Wikis be a disruptive technology ?
Wikis can be a disruptive technology for example to the publishing companies of Encyclopedias. Wikipedia is not trying to bring better product to established customer in existing markets. Rather Wikipedia has disrupt and redefine the puplishing trajectory by introducing the website as a product that is not as good as currently available product or the published respectful Encyclopedias. Wikipedia offers benefits in that sence that it is simple to use, convenient and does not cost money. And in that sense Wikipeda appeal to new or less demanding information seeking customers, making it a disruptive technology.