Collaboration, Literacy, Authorship: Updated!

Kairos 12.1 came out in 2007, so some (read "lots") of the links in this article have taken interesting turns since the original authorship. Actually, I think I got more out of the progression of the links than the original article, interesting as it was!

Newsvine

The article mentions Newsvine at several points, as a successful site changing the landscape of how news is reported, and as a possible place for students to contribute writing. In 2007, the site had about 60,000 registered members. Today, it's still up and running, and though I can't figure out how many members there are, it's currently the 2869^th most popular site on the web, according to Most Popular Websites. Based on how many comments there were on the pages I navigated through, it still is a vibrant community and an interesting possibility for student writing. I may incorporate this into my plans the next time I teach 101. In addition, interestingly, based on the small screen views provided in the Kairos text, their layout hasn't changed in any discernible way in years. While there's still a good deal of flexibility in web design, I see this as a sign that some concrete genres, such as the “news website” are clearly forming. In conclusion, while I'm not sure that this site has revolutionized news, it's definitely a different news experience. It's the only non-specialized new source I've ever seen where a story with the title “Israel's War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity Go Unreported by Media” can be found on the main page of the “World News” section. Overall, nifty! I'll definitely be moseying back to this one.

Writingwiki.org

The article also mentions the author's experimentation with setting up writingwiki.org as an online classroom space, and possibly the home of a free rhetoric in the future. Sadly, it looks like this idea didn't pan out as hoped. Here's the message that's currently on the main page:

Hi, Thank you for visiting http://writingwiki.org.

Ideally, I'd like this to be a home for writers to talk about the writing process and their writing.

I initially had this site up in an open way, allowing other visitors to edit the page. Well, spammers attacked in overwhelming numbers. Hence, the site now disables anonymous editing or authorship.

For now, this is just a place for me to keep some random notes.

Mostly, I'm at http://collegewriting.org

Computers and Composition Proposal

An interesting representation of the intersection/clash of commercial and collaborative goals. I wonder how much of an issue this is web-wide?

Likewise, this is what you get if you try to go to teachingwiki.org:

It's important to note that these dead links are more a representation of technological limitations than failure over time on the part of the writers, however. If only these could automatically change over to older versions through something like Wayback Machine! Some day...

I say this because the University of South Florida does have an awesome interactive hub for the FYWP – I'm jealous, and thing you should definitely go check it out! Their main page incorporates social platforms like Facebook and Twitter, currently features an interview and showing of a student-created video, and links to an instructor and staff blog as well as a student one (though nothing is currently posted in that). In short, it's a page that students might actually want to visit!

I've really enjoyed being able to easily double the online community my students are a part of by having people from both of the sections I teach post on the same site. How great would it be to have a connected campus-wide community?