Assignment 11: Networks of DOOM! [Daniel Gustafson, dgg67]

First I want to address the structuring of Wikipedia. While I admire and adore its front-end display and interface, trying to sort out information in the back end is ungainly at best. A significant amount of information is displayed about each individual edit, such as the username (or IP), the time, notes about the revision, multiple obscure links, etc. It took me about 10 minutes to figure out how to actually view the content of the edits. A less cluttered display would be a significant step Wikipedia could take to improve its back-end and encourage collaboration between Wikipedia users. If edits are easily displayed, they can be quickly rejected or approved by the general population. It should be possible to comment on specific edits (or if it is already possible, then it should be easier to find/use). If users could easily view and reply to comments about edits, it would be easier to collaboratively maintain the page.

That being said, for this assignment I visited the “Computer Networks” Wikipedia Page. This page serves as a significant knowledge base for general computer networking knowledge, something I am well versed in. Just in the recent edits, I witnessed a few forms of collaboration. In response to a vandalism where one user changed the introduction to read “Networks require 7 sacrifices daily to maintain stability”, as well as inserted many other macabre passages, multiple users the initiative to reverse the edits. The vandal only made 7 separate edits, yet 3 people were involved in reversing the changes. I also witnessed Wikipedia users collaborating to ensure the most accurate information was included. One user wrote that he believed the current version to be the most accurate according to one widely-known user’s edit. (ie he wrote to the effect “I think this version is correct according to “X”s edit”) This comment shows that at least one user is active in maintaining not only the page itself, but more importantly a dialog chronicling the development of the page, a resource crucial for collaboration.