Professor F mentioned in passing today that when someone tweaks a new media technology to use for a different purpose it revolutionizes that medium in some way. Well, wikipedia received that kind of tweak during the VT shooting. While it stayed true to its roots (no one posted original material) it became the spot to get up to date information on what was happening at VT. The article pertaining to the shooting had over 2,000 editors working on it and over 140 footnotes. It received, on average, 4 hits a second for the three days following the shootings. Imagine a newspaper with over 2,00 editors being updated constantly. Off course, because nothing is original material, the newspaper would not be quite as up to date as the newspaper the editors got the info from, but it differently consolidates all the information into one, easy to find place.
The nytimes article also had a great quote from one of the main editors of the VT page:
"The problem with Wikipedia is that it only works in practice. In theory, it can never work.’ ”
So true...
That was a really interesting article, Bumpkins. I felt like it addressed many of our frustruations with new media in general: the techonologies are developing in unexpected ways, and people are moving through them at a speed so immense (i.e. on wikipedia, regarding the VT shooting, one wikipedia editor said, "it's hard to remember that was just days ago.")
Perhaps the most illuminating sentence (and possibly of the entire semester) about the difficulty of theroizing about New Media was also from this article . . . another Wikiedia "editor" mentioned profoundly claims how it "only works in practice, in theory it can never work."
A ha! So perhaps THIS is why we've struggled through the readings! Are we dealing with technologies that--unlike so many other aspects of life--work in reality and are impossible in the theoretical sphere?!? This seems to be the most interesting contrast of all, because wikipedia exists in virtual reality, and not in real life, yet it seems to only make sense in solid concrete practice . . .
I have to go to class, but more is to follow!!