
1. ANYTHING BUT ONLINE
Project Purpose: To understand the bene?ts of ebusiness.
Potential Solution: Of course Susan can expand her business by taking it to
the Internet. And, the best part is that putting her business online is
essentially free, hence low risk. If she wants to grow her business she must
expand by creating an online presence. Of course she will face numerous
2. THE FUTURE OF WIKIPEDIA
Project Purpose: To understand the dangers of open source and open
sharing.
Potential Solution: Wikipedia's greatest ability is that it can be changed and
updated quickly - it really is one of its best features. You can only update an
encyclopedia every few years. As Jimmy Whales moves towards greater
information reviews and accuracy checking changing content should become
an easier process. I don't think the majority of people realize that - anyone -
can just go in and change Wikipedia. I think communicating this fact would be
the ?rst thing Wikipedia should do. Then, they should use technology to verify
- colored backgrounds for veri?ed by an expert vs a different color if not
veri?ed. The trick is who decides on the expert and verifying Wikipedia might
become a full-time job.
In terms of the higher purpose of Wikipedia - to supply a free encyclopedia - it
makes great sense. In many countries the thought of paying thousands of
dollars for a set of encyclopedias is not an option. Wikipedia, although
somewhat unreliable and untrustworthy, is a great alternative. I ?nd much of
the wiki information on MIS to be very accurate. Wikipedia is an attractive
alternative if you have no other options for an encyclopedia.
There are so many technological things that Wikipedia could do to help track
changes and accuracy such as tracing revisions or allowing users to rank posts
and their accuracy that allows users to vote how relevant or useful the
information was - similar to Digg.com. This democratic method allows input