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Amy Bruckman finds the accomplishments of such online collaborations as Wikipedia, Apache and Firefox “nothing less than astounding,” and is both eagerly seeking and hoping to foster the next creative group Internet sensation. In her lab’s empirical studies, Bruckman has dissected different types of ensemble internet projects. She describes them as “naturally occurring constructionist learning environments,” where individuals bring “who they are to the process of making meaning,” and receive from their community technical and emotional support. This stuff matters, she says, because “people working together can create mind-bogglingly interesting stuff,” not least because the most inclusive projects reflect the values of all their contributors.  Bruckman identifies some typical collaborative modes, including the remix (adapting someone else’s project); the benevolent dictatorship (as in open-source software, where a leader decides what contributors may add to the project); and open-content publishing, in which participants work in parallel checking one another’s work. She remarks that the last type of collaboration can prove surprisingly efficient and accurate. A Wikipedia entry that evolved in the first 100 hours after Japan’s recent earthquake contained 2900 edits made by 761 people. Online collaborations often follow a project’s “narrative” structure, says Bruckman, so people may work in parallel; or by continuation (with pieces handed off sequentially to the next person); or by collection, with a leader gathering the parts into a whole. Some factors in online communities are more likely to encourage participation than others, such as clearly defined reciprocity (if I help you, you help me in return); or that contributions are clearly attributed to an individual, and may improve that person’s reputation. Bruckman is creating a suite of tools called Pipeline that attempts to enumerate the best practices of online collaboration to help digital producers k...
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Video Length: 0
Date Found: June 06, 2011
Date Produced: May 31, 2011
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MIT World |
July 07, 2011
In three presentations that look back to digital-age milestones, and glimpse ahead to what may come next, speakers share some previously undisclosed stories, great enthusiasms, and a few concerns. Nicholas Negroponte tells a few “dirty secrets” about the start of the MIT Media Lab, including ...
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MIT World |
June 29, 2011
Winners of the A.M.Turing Award, the Nobel Prize of computing, describe their singular contributions to the field, and their works’ impact. They also find time to discuss the current and future state of computer science. Moderator Stephen Ward starts with 1990 prize winner Fernando Corbato, who ...
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MIT World |
June 13, 2011
Drew Davidson likes to play with blocks in his sandbox, as he demonstrates in a show-and-tell to interactive media colleagues. In this case, the playground is an online game called Minecraft, a two-year-young internet sensation with millions of followers, developed single-handedly by a ...
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MIT World |
June 06, 2011
Amy Bruckman finds the accomplishments of such online collaborations as Wikipedia, Apache and Firefox “nothing less than astounding,” and is both eagerly seeking and hoping to foster the next creative group Internet sensation. In her lab’s empirical studies, Bruckman has dissected different ...
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MIT World |
June 06, 2011
The ultimate questions for this Sandbox 2011 panel, posed by moderator Alan Gershenfeld, are “Where is technology not working? When is technology not the answer?” That’s a bold agenda for a panel of children’s media creators and a roomful of other producers in the industry, from Sesame ...
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