Hey everyone. I read Justin Reich Reworking the Web 2008 and he asks "Will online communities within firms represent a new avenue for employee advancement?" On the news recently there has been a huge story about how scientists have used web 2.0 to help them discover the structure of a retrovirus molecule similar to HIV. In this case though scientists have gone outside of their firms to the public to ask for their help and ideas.
Scientists have been trying to work this out for over a decade but they couldn't find the answer. They then decided to turn their problem into a game called fold it which they posted online and also created a wiki on wikia where the players could upload and edit information they learned. The gamers solved the problem in only 3 weeks meaning that scientists are now able to go on to design retroviral drugs and hopefully find cures for diseases such as HIV, cancer and Alzheimer's.
This is such a good example of how web 2.0 can be used to help solve serious issues and shows just how important the technology has become to us. It could be life saving.
Here's a link to the full article.
On a note more relevant to us I wondered if anybody had heard of Reddit? It's a site that users can post anything online and other users can comment and up or down vote the post so it becomes more or less popular. There are different categories within the site and there's one specific to dancehttp://www.reddit.com/r/dance take a look and see.
Hi Emily, this is a fascinating article. It seems to show that although we have developed computers to do a lot of 'thinking' for us, they are limited by only doing the processes we ask of them and therefore, without the added 'human element' are not as capable as they could be. This suggests that web 2.0 is a powerful blend of human initiative and technological resources - separately, neither the humans nor the technology succeeded, but together with 2.0 it became possible. Intriguing, and it increases my determination to access and use as many of these technologies as I can!
ReplyDeleteWhich brings me to the second point - I had heard of Reddit in passing but didn't know what relevance it had. Thanks for explaining its purpose, seems like a good platform to share links to people with similar interests. I had a quick look - wonder how they decide which posts are 'controversial'?
Hi Emily really interesting posts. I think web-2.0 raises very interesting questions about 'where' knowledge is and who has it. Does the mass of people also raise the importance of information? or is the information made less valuable because of its mass?
ReplyDeleteGreat you're really moving along with things
Adesola