User:David Mason/P2PU week 1 assignment: Difference between revisions

User:David Mason/P2PU week 1 assignment (view source)

Revision as of 15:50, 3 October 2010

283 bytes added , 3 October 2010

no edit summary

David Mason

Bureaucrats, Administrators

1,816

edits

@@ Line 6: / Line 6: @@
 For my [http://p2pu.org/ Peer to Peer University]'s [http://p2pu.org/general/open-journalism-open-web Open Journalism & the Open Web] course [http://p2pu.org/node/5644/document/9468 week one, Assignment one], I decided to investigate the numbers behind the G20/G8 2010 combined summits in Canada. These summits, particularly the G20, were controversial because of their [[2010/G20 and G8 Budget/Summit costs were unreasonable|high costs]], [[2010/G20 and G8 Budget/Budget numbers are transparently being released|lack of transparency]], [[2010/G20/Summit was disruptive|disruptive impact on the city]], and [[2010/G20/Handling by authorities was a problem|heavy-handed and potentially manipulative behaviour by government and police authorities]].
-In this case, after freedom of information requests, the government released part of the budget, in fax form. The fax became available online, and I posted a message to the [http://canbudget.zooid.org/frame/?l=http%3A//groups.google.com/group/visiblegovernment-discuss/browse_thread/thread/54a5551a854e13e5 Visible Government mailing list] and [http://www.facebook.com/nostriluu?v=wall&story_fbid=156947327666270 Facebook], asking for people interested in transcribing this data into reusable spreadsheet data, and suggesting the creation of a semantic, structured wiki to make the data reusable and examinable through addition of details. This includes discourse features, which allows assigning a position to additions. For example, an initial cost item can have another item added with a Debatable position. That item can then have items added with Supports or Refutes positions.
+In this case, after freedom of information requests, the government released part of the budget, in fax form. The fax became available online, and I posted a message to the [http://canbudget.zooid.org/frame/?l=http%3A//groups.google.com/group/visiblegovernment-discuss/browse_thread/thread/54a5551a854e13e5 Visible Government mailing list] and [http://www.facebook.com/nostriluu?v=wall&story_fbid=156947327666270 Facebook], asking for people interested in transcribing this data into reusable spreadsheet data, and suggesting the creation of a semantic, structured wiki to make the data reusable and examinable through addition of details. This includes discourse features, which allows assigning a position to additions. For example, an initial cost item can have another item added with a [[Debatable]] position. That item can then have items added with [[Supports]] or [[Refutes]] positions.
 A number of individuals helped [https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=tZVtPjZYfnOcWglkGpGMTgQ&authkey=CMia450N#gid=1 transcribe the data], which was imported, and discourse features added, along with a number of examples.
-The result is highly re-usable, organized information. Because the software is based on the Free Software [http://www.mediawiki.org Mediawiki], the same software used by Wikipedia, it is free to use, can store many entries, and a culture of access is included.  All site editing is done via the Web, so anyone can view any page's contents (via the edit or view source tab), [[Special:RecentChanges|site editing history]], page edit history (via the history tab), and [[Special:Version|components of the site]], as well as progressively learn how to use and contribute to the site (knowledge which will transfer to similar sites, and which I'd assert is digital literacy past filling in forms). Because the site uses [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ cc-by-sa] terms of use, anyone can take the content and use it for their own purposes, as long as they attribute the site and make modified works available under the same terms. All the [[:Category:Site components|site components]] can be exported and re-used easily on any site using [[Special:Export]].
+The result is highly re-usable, organized information. Because the software is based on the Free Software [http://www.mediawiki.org Mediawiki], the same software used by Wikipedia, it is free to use, can store many entries, and a culture of access is included. All content is malleable and subjective, so having the insights of Wikipedia ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Neutral_point_of_view neutral point of view], managing content) and the [http://www.semanticweb.org Semantic Web] (anyone can say anything about anything) helps work through issues.
+All site editing is done via the Web, so anyone can view any page's contents (via the edit or view source tab), [[Special:RecentChanges|site editing history]], page edit history (via the history tab), and [[Special:Version|components of the site]], as well as progressively learn how to use and contribute to the site (knowledge which will transfer to similar sites, and which I'd assert is digital literacy past filling in forms). Because the site uses [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ cc-by-sa] terms of use, anyone can take the content and use it for their own purposes, as long as they attribute the site and make modified works available under the same terms. All the [[:Category:Site components|site components]] can be exported and re-used easily on any site using [[Special:Export]].
 == Structured features ==
-While [http://www.semantic-mediawiki.org Semantic Mediawiki] may seem to focus on the [http://www.semanticweb.org Semantic Web], in this case it is used to make the site easier to use, while making the content re-usable across the site. Therefore queries can be '''dynamically''' used in different ways;
+While [http://www.semantic-mediawiki.org Semantic Mediawiki] may seem to focus on the Semantic Web, in this case it is used to make the site easier to use, while making the content re-usable across the site. Therefore queries can be '''dynamically''' used in different ways;
 {{ #ask: [[Position::Debatable]]