Wikipedia

When I googled “wiki,” the first relevant response, ironically, directs me to Wikipedia’s article about wikis. Wikipedia, banned by professors and scholars everywhere, is in fact the most well known wiki.

A wiki is an online source that allows anyone to publish his or her own information about any topic. According to Wikipedia, the term wiki is derived from the Hawaiian word for “fast” and is an acronym for “What I Know Is.”

The first known wiki was published in 1995 on the Web site WikiWikiWeb. Wikis quickly expanded into the business world. Companies recognized their abilities to quickly communicate among employees. They utilized this ease and replaced the intranet with wikis. Since then, wiki has made its mark in the technological world. In 2007, it was even added to the Oxford English Dictionary.

They are incredibly convenient and have endless information all at one location in the vast universe of cyberspace. Anyone can contribute information, resulting in a more comprehensive encyclopedia entry.

However, this is the primary Achilles heel of the wiki. If anyone can anonymously publish information, how do you know if it is accurate?

Wikipedia came across this problem in 2005. In May of 2005, Brian Chase posted erroneous information about his colleague journalist John Seigenthaler Sr. Chase accused Seigenthaler of involvement in the assassinations of both President John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy. The post remained on Wikipedia for four months until it was discovered.

This false entry is also known as “trolling” or the intentional vandalism of the site. Wikipedia approaches false posting with the attitude that incorrect information is easier to delete than it is to deter. Misleading information is the chief reason why professors ask their students to use sources other than Wikipedia. Yet, with such an accessible Web site, is this fair? Wikipedia is the one-stop shop for any and all information.

All credibility is not lost though. Public relations practitioners are employing wikis to communicate with one another and gauge opinions. The New PR/Wiki Web site is one such site. PR professionals blog and communicate with one another via this site.

However, new technology has made the “anonymous” posts not so anonymous anymore. Identifying IP addresses has shed light on PR practitioners contributing information on wikis that either benefit their own organization or slur another.

Wikis are a fascinating concept. They can potentially offer so much useful information. With the growth in popularity of private wikis, the possibilities of this expanding technology are endless. Supervising the accuracy of posts is the obstacle preventing the breakthrough of the wiki.

Question: If the most extensive information I could find about wikis was on Wikipedia, how much should you trust this article?

For more information, visit:

http://www.thenewpr.com/wiki/pmwiki.ph

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki

http://www.forbes.com/2007/08/15/wikipedia-editiing-publishing-tech-security-cx_ag_0815wiki.html

By: Allison Key

RSS

Okay, so you see the RSS symbol just about everywhere as you are conducting your daily web-life. If you are like me (not quite as tech-savvy as the rest of Grady College seems to be) you may not know exactly what RSS is or what it can do for you. But even if you have no clue what it is, you have seen the symbol enough to be curious why it is popping up all over the web.

What is RSS?

RSS most commonly stands for "Real Simple Syndication" (although there are multiple names for it.) According to Wikipedia, "RSS is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video in a standardized format." Put simply, it is an quick, easy way to distribute or receive news and web content, which is updated very frequently, without the hassle of surfing the web.

How does it work?

Many online publishers, such as bloggers or news organizations, syndicate their content. As new content is created, the updated information is organized into a list of notifications called an RSS feed. A special program called an RSS aggregator allows you to grab RSS feeds from various sites. It automatically checks the list of RSS feeds that you have chosen and organizes the information. It is then sent directly to you, so your mailbox does not get cluttered.

Why use RSS?

The Internet has become the most widely used way to obtain information (especially for those in the academic world.) The problem is that there is an overload of potential sources of information. It has become a tedious, time consuming process to constantly check websites whose information is important to you. Also, the content changes frequently and unpredictably. RSS has solved this problem. Notifications from many websites can now be presented to you in an organized manner.

What does this mean for the world of public relations?

Although it may not have been created specifically for this reason, RSS can be used as a valuable marketing tool. First of all, the more people that visit your site the more visible you are on search engines (the closer you are to the first page of results.) If someone adds you to their RSS aggregator they are technically visiting your site more frequently. Even though there are still many people who do not use RSS, most people do visit search engines on a regular basis. You are increasing the publics awareness of your site and/or organization. Now that is a great public relations strategy.

Also, PR2020.com points out that "RSS gives public relations professionals the ability to consume and filter much larger amounts of information."

How do I get started?

Fist you need to find an aggregator (or RSS reader). For most, an online reader is the easiest to obtain. Since gmail is so popular I would start with Google Reader, but there is also My Yahoo. Next, when you go to a site look for the RSS symbol shown above, or they may use an icon with XML or RDF.

For more information visit:

1. A great youtube video that explains RSS in simple terms

2. wikipedia

3. whatisrss.com (clever name, right?)

By: Kelli Hammock