Life in the Network

So the debate that comes from the article for this week establishes a strong existence and power amongst participatory journalism including Wikipedia and Myspace and whether or not this is beneficial and constitutes true wisdom. It is my understanding that particpatory journalism defines words in accordance with democracy among users. Therefore, isn't it the people, the individuals that are networked within a specific term, to give the term true definition and adjust the definition in accordance to ever changing culture and meaning.

I do understand the concern that this does stray from traditional encyclopedia definitions and does not constitute a clear unchanging definition given a specific term. But even encyclopedia definitions do change in time. Perhaps the only difference becomes the power of the people. Therefore, it is the people I chose to hear from and is exactly why I use Wikipedia when trying to clearly define an abstract term that I am unsure of. I believe Wikipedia gives us the opportunity to define words in accordance to understanding. For example, I am a healthcare recruiter and recently had to clearly define the difference among LPNs and RNs. Given a text book defnition I became unclear of the differences and was unable to articulate this to my candidates. When I reviewed definitions from Wikipedia I became how these terms relate in everyday terminology.

Viral marketing and the subservient chicken articles were interesting to me as I have a marketing background. I applaude companies and individuals that are able to create such campaigns that are often cost affective and gather large audience participation. The subservient chicken did just that and therefore became a success. Any figure head of a campaign that can bring the everyday web browser to spend 6 to 7 minutes on the Burger King site made a cultural impact within their industry.

In this case Wikipedia is a online community that could be used as a medium for viral marketing. This can be positive and negative in the way that Wikipedia highlights defined words. For example, the term that I worked with on Wikipedia was coffee shops. For of all the site automatically sent me to the listing for coffeehouses. I clearly do not call my coffee gathering grounds a coffeehouse but can appreciate the greatest accepted term. Secondly the highlighted term Starbuck was recognized for overstaturating the market and driving up corporate coffee prices and lowering the prices of the privately owned shops. Clearly in this defition they are using marketing efforts to make a negative feeling towards Starbucks.

I have particpated to great extent on Wikipedia but until now have not changed a defintion. I will be editing the negative Starbucks reference and also trying to clear up the statements in the defiinition regarding coffeehouses being a common place for smoking. Also at the end people begin to mention internet cafes. To me this has no meaning within coffeehouses and has been placed there primarily for people to do further investigation about internet cafes. An inidividual has placed internet cafes on this page as a way to freely market.