Dissident

New links on Communities of Practice @del.icio.us 2008-05-04

THIS BLOG IS MOVING TO STEVE-DALE.NET

Tools for Communities Wiki

A companion piece to a forthcoming book Stewarding Technologies for Communities of Practice by Etienne Wenger, Nancy White and John D. Smith. It collects knowledge about how Communities of Practice use different tools. Like all Wikis, this is a work in progress. It collects knowledge about how Communities of Practice use different tools. The vision is to provide a community perspective on these tools and their key features.

GroupTweet

GroupTweet piggy-backs on the Twitter service via the Twitter API. It allows you to set up a private group on Twitter for sending and receiving text messages (tweets) to members of the group. This tool might be a great introduction to Twitter as quick information sharing tool for a small community of practice and people who are new to Twitter.

Wikileaks busts Guantanamo Bay propaganda team

Picked up today from Wikileaks, it seems our American cousins over at Guantanamo Bay have been modifying content in Wikipedia that they disagree with and adding stuff which (allegedly) gives us a more balanced picture of what they're up to over there. Wikipedia as a vehicle for propaganda? Surely not!!

Wikis in plain English

Thanks to my friends over at Studio 501c I was alerted to another excellent video presentation from the Common Craft Show, this time explaining clearly and simply what a Wiki is. I thought the  RSS  presentation  was a one-off, but  I realise I need to look out for new stuff from these folk.  Definitely worth a subscription.

Wikileaks - liberating those skeletons from government closets?

Clearly I've been remiss in my recent blog and news reading since I only came across Wikileaks by accident. A bit embarrassing really given the name of my blog!

The blurb on the site says:

" Wikileaks is developing an uncensorable Wikipedia for untraceable mass document leaking and analysis. Our primary interests are oppressive regimes in Asia, the former Soviet bloc, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, but we also expect to be of assistance to those in the west who wish to reveal unethical behaviour in their own governments and corporations. We aim for maximum political impact; this means our interface is identical to Wikipedia and usable by non-technical people. We have received over 1.2 million documents so far from dissident communities and anonymous sources."

I couldn't find any evidence of the 1.2 million documents they refer to, though the FAQs section refers to a live date of March 2007.  I can only assume the launch is delayed pending getting the dirt on Gordon Brown's 'Great Pensions Robbery"!

Whether the site turns out to have any authoritative content  on it, or is just merely a repository of innuendo and gossip remains to be seen. Should I be subscribing I wonder?!