Tag Archives: wiki

Luvhistory2010 is Blazin’ Trails on Answers.com.

Like an early pioneer headed out west, our Featured Contributor – Luvhistory2010 – has been busy clearing paths and forging ahead on Answers.com. Her contributions, charismatic attitude and overall presence in the community are remarkable and humbling. When asked how and when she discovered Answers.com, Luvhistory2010 reported: “I actually discovered Answers.com quite a while before I joined. I think I typed a question into Google and Answers.com was one of the first search results to come up. When I finally joined it was to clean up grammar errors I saw that I just couldn’t let go. Within weeks or maybe a month or so, I was a Supervisor and the rest, as they say, is history.”

Let’s find out more!

Do you have any pets?

I don’t have any pets at the moment. My cat passed away on Valentine’s Day and it is too soon in the grieving process for me to get another one. I would like to get a cat or kitten at some point in the near future though. I’d love to have a long-haired cat. They are more work, yes, but they are oh so beautiful!

Where did you grow up and do you have any special memories of your childhood?

Most of my special memories are of the summer days spent with my grandmother. Those memories are all the more special to me now since Nanny (that’s what we called her) passed away in October. Both of my parents worked and so Nanny was my babysitter and a good one she was. I loved spending time at her house and I can safely say that she loved having me.

What educational information would you like to share?

I have an Associates degree from Columbus State Community College and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Ohio State University.

What are your key areas of knowledge, interests or expertise?

I love history, early American history and military history being my key areas of interest. I also love animals. My favorite class my senior year of high school was zoology. I remember we had to make identification cards with different animals from different generas on them. Art is admittedly not my forte (my brother got those genes) but I enjoyed making those cards immensely. Fair warning to all who read this, I love being asked questions about animals and once you get me started, it’s a little tough to get me to stop. lol I also love Ohio State football, cats and spending time with friends and family.

Do you have any collections or hobbies?

Books! I love books and I love to read and re-read them. My collection seems to be ever growing but unfortunately the amount of space I have to put them is not. I have learned, out of necessity, to limit the number of times I allow myself to go into a bookstore because undoubtedly I will leave with at least one new book every time I go. I also love music. My MP3 player gets good use, believe me. Music tends to keep me going during the day and will sometimes bring me up if I’m feeling down. And, of course, Answers.com. I had no idea how addicting the site would be when I joined but it’s a good addiction. :)

What are a few random facts about yourself?

I am the youngest child to my parents (my brother is ten and a half years my senior) and was (I say “was” because all of my grandparents have passed on) the youngest grandchild to both sets of grandparents. There are definite advantages to being the “baby.” ;) I used to be afraid of cats believe it or not and I have always had a fear of dogs. The fear of cats went away pretty quickly but the fear of dogs is still there although it’s gotten much, much better as I’ve gotten older. It only rears its ugly head when I encounter a loose dog I do not know. Otherwise, I’m fine and I’ve actually learned to like dogs, particularly the larger breeds. I also enjoy doing meticulous things, like for instance, untangling tangled Christmas tree lights. I know, odd.

What accomplishments are you proud of?

I have a BA in history from the Ohio State University. I had wanted to attend Ohio State from the time I was a child and knew I wanted to go to college. After spending four years at a local community college, that dream was finally realized when I started attending classes at OSU in fall of 2008. My first week or so on campus I kept thinking, “You’re actually here! You’re actually realizing this dream!” I graduated (finally!) in spring of 2010 and I was immensely proud of myself for finally making it that far.

How would you describe yourself or personality?

The first word that came to mind when I read this question was tall. lol I am 5’11″ which is pretty tall for a woman in my family. Many of my female family members are under 5’5″ so I tower over them. I enjoy being tall; I always have. As far as my personality goes, I would describe myself as quiet and reserved until you get to know me and then I can be outgoing and silly. The first thing that most of my friends and family say when asked to describe my personality is that I am “sweet.” I am also compassionate and I love, love, love to help others if I can.

What is your favorite Answers.com activity?

I enjoy doing a few different things. I like answering questions in some of the categories I supervise, especially Taxonomy, I enjoy unflagging questions flagged by DingoBot in the categories I supervise and I enjoy recategorizing questions. Oh, I also enjoy correcting spelling and grammar in questions I find in Recent Site Activity.

Way or no way: blufr’s new bonus category is WikiLeaks.

WikiLeaks, the rogue media organization that works to publish confidential diplomatic and classified documents and videos, is itself the center of the media’s attention in the last week after it unleashed hundreds of thousands of confidential cables from U.S. records.

Well, at least that’s all ‘way.’

But what else do you know? blufr just posted the latest bonus category – WikiLeaks – so it’s time to find out.

Way or no way:

Keep up with current events – and play blufr to figure out fact from fiction…

How do you pronounce wiki?

Ever wonder if you’re doing it all wrong? No, no, not your school work or your marriage or attempting to potty train your dog. I mean… pronouncing the word ‘wiki.’

How do you pronounce ‘wiki’?

After all, it’s originally a Hawaiian word, and as proven by the spelling of ‘Hawaiian,’ this is clearly a word not pronounced how it would seem obvious.

Is it weeki? Whickey? Weki? Wikee? Weekee?

Well, first of all, the word from which it is derived is wiki-wiki, which means ‘quick’ in Hawaiian. It seems to be that the Hawaiian pronunciation is ‘weekee’ or ‘veekee’ but the pronunciation associated with the website technology (like WikiAnswers or Wikipedia) is whickey.

WikiAnswers on Web100.com.

Matt Sevits of Web100.com made this observation yesterday:”When most people hear “wiki,” the first thing that comes to mind is probably Wikipedia.” I do find that to be the case as well… but I also agree that “all that is about to change.” The site (wisely!) included WikiAnswers.com in his list of sites that go “beyond Wikipedia: 7 wikis for everything from “Lost” to lyrics.”

Says Matt:

WikiAnswers takes a collaborative approach to knowledge, giving you the chance to ask questions and use your knowledge to answer the questions submitted by others. If search engines can’t answer your question, someone on WikiAnswers probably can.

Exactly what I was thinking.

Universal Edit Button on WikiAnswers.

WikiAnswers now supports the Universal Edit Button (or UEB). It is a powerful Firefox add-on, displaying a special icon in the address bar when content on the page you’re viewing is editable. It functions much like those ubiquitous orange RSS icons that signal syndicated content (popularly known as RSS feeds) is available on the website you’re viewing.

Here’s how it looks in your browser:

The UEB enables Wikiholics to more easily edit answers on WikiAnswers as well as unearth new opportunities to contribute to wiki pages around the web. With other popular wikis – including Wikipedia – enabling this capability on their websites, the UEB may even become a standard feature of browsers in the future… which is why if you don’t already use the Firefox browser, you may want to start now!

Long live wikis!

Hat tip to Brave3 for sharing!

WikiAnswers: a timeline of awesome on WikiTree.

Ever feel like sitting around and remembering the good ole days? How about the good new days? WikiAnswers now has it’s own space on WikiTree, which is:

  1. a tool for families to organize and share their family tree, memories, photos, etc.
  2. an historical resource — an international “wiki” for life stories and family histories.

And… it’s also a website created by Chris Whitten, founder of the original WikiAnswers, known then as FAQ Farm. This new venture is a wiki meant for collaboration in coming up with information to add to the family trees and personal profile pages.

You can check out the WikiAnswers WikiTree space and read through a growing timeline of the Q&A site’s history, started by a few of the original WikiAnswerers, including Chris himself. Feel free to sign up and create your own family tree or check out the WikiAnswers page and watch it grow!

A day in the life of a TWS Top 10 winner.

We’ve just returned from a wonderful day at TWS 2008, a hi tech conference that took place in Tel Aviv, Israel. Ten Web 2.0 start ups were chosen from hundreds to present their pitches to the diverse audience, including yours truly (the other nine are summed up over at Mashable, CenterNetworks, Blonde2.0, and VC Cafe).

Judges included Om Malik, Guy Kawasaki, Pete Cashmore, and others.

We made a 5-minute presentation based around the ever-crucial question: Is the wrapper of Trident gum chewable?, which included handing out many many pieces of the stuff to the audience for some real, live social knowledge sharing.

The rest of the day was spent sharing the wonder and beauty that is WikiAnswers: A Q&A website that is based on the wiki format, where anyone can edit questions or answers to create – oh, sorry, there I go with the pitch again.

Here are some of the day’s highlights:

The booth: where all the magic happens.

The pitch: It’s pretty easy with such an awesome site.

This is the face of a person who has chewed too much Trident gum before doing a presentation which includes… Trident gum.

A conversation about WikiAnswers.

The name of the game.

Nothing like a bit of chocolate goo at a conference!

A big thank you to the judges of TWS 2008 for including WikiAnswers among ten of the finest start ups around!

Feed the Wiki Addiction…

We really should talk about your Wiki addiction. We’re here to help you, you know. We want to make it easier for you…accessing information should be a seamless process!

That’s why we, over here at Answers.com, are proud to introduce a brand new tool bar that toolbar enables you to quickly look up terms in the search box or browse the library with one click. Now you can search Answers.com and WikiAnswers directly from your browser. It’s even pimped out with a radio and weather forecasting!

Can you imagine such a delight!? An instant Wiki-fix!? Right from your browser!?

Click here to check it out now…

Wiki-fix for Wiki addicts

The McMommy Chronicles discovers WikiAnswers.

This is just way too cool. Check out this process, as described by The McMommy Chronicles blogger, as to how she discovered (and got addicted to) WikiAnswers:

“I found something today called WikiAnswers. I found it because someone came to my blog by googling “Kate Gosselin’s sister blog” And it got me wondering…kate gosselin has a sister and she blogs?? So when I googled it, it brought me to Wiki Answers. Holy Addictive-ness! You should see all the questions people ask about kate gosselin! If you don’t believe me, click here to see for yourself. You can even find out if Kate has ever been in jail. You CAN!” (source)

You just gotta love the inner workings of the wonderful interwebs. I wonder what McMommy is working on over at WikiAnswers right now… Let’s hope she’s having a wonderful WikiExperience!

Call for teachers: the WikiAnswers classroom project.

 

In recent years the potential for computers and the internet as educational tools has grown tremendously. When I was an elementary school student, ‘computer class’ meant going once a week to play Lemonade Stand in a stuffy closet with a bunch of dusty Apple II’s and Commodores.

Twenty-plus years later, students in middle school and high school are not only computer savvy, but also benefit greatly from education using alternative tools on the internet.

I’ve begun a hunt for teachers who prefer alternative methods of learning to try out an idea brewing: a WikiAnswers classroom project, where a class can work on asking and answering questions on WikiAnswers in a topic they are studying for class (there are currently 3,073 categories and counting!). The teacher might want to seed the questions and have students work together to answer them, or the students might want to quiz each other; the possibilities are vast and I’d be happy to work with teachers to figure out ways to use WikiAnswers as an educational tool.

In fact, if there is a category you’d like to try with your students that doesn’t yet exist on WikiAnswers, we’d be happy to add it! Most categories have a Supervisor dedicated to growing them and protecting them from vandals, and would be happy to work with you.

Leave a comment if this idea appeals to you and your class.

Today’s highlights, wiki technology and the greater good.

Let’s talk about Today’s Highlights.

It’s a daily updated feature from Answers.com that offers a spotlight, featured question, today’s birthdays, today in history and more, right from the homepage. You could say it’s like taking your daily dose of Vitamin T: ‘t’ for trivia and ‘vitamin’ because it’s good for you.

You could also take the trivia you learn and finally have something to contribute to the water cooler conversations going on right outside your cubicle. Don’t be shy; just lean over there and sing ‘happy birthday’ to Elton John, Sarah Jessica Parker and Aretha Franklin or mention that today, in 1328, Robert the Bruce became king of the not-yet-independent Scotland.

Now let’s talk specifically about today’s highlight.

First of all, I wrote the Spotlight, so I can’t see a reason why you wouldn’t fall madly in love with it right when you start reading.

Today's Highlights: Ward Cunningham and wiki

Secondly, it covers the topic of wikis, which we discuss here a lot (being WikiAnswers gurus and all). I’ll be honest, when I first toyed around with the whole wiki thing, I was confused and a little skeptical; after all, why should I write something if it can be edited by anyone later on?

But once I got into it, it made a lot of sense. I know a little bit about a topic, Timmy knows a little something more, Samantha adds some personal experience… Collaboration is for the greater good, and like the Spider-man movies have taught me, the greater good is worth fighting for.

Thank you Answers.com Editorial Team, for serving fresh Today’s Highlights every single day; thank you Ward Cunningham, for developing wiki technology; thank you WikiAnswers, for having the courage to fight the good fight.

 

WikiAnswers on search engines… and AltSearchEngines.

WikiAnswers got a big fat biographical interview yesterday on AltSearchEngines, a blog covering the growing search engine scene.

While I might characterize WikiAnswers as less a search engine and more a directory of Q&A, there is a strong aspect of search that has been improved in recent weeks.

WikiAnswers search bar

One of the unique things about WikiAnswers is that it utilizes the wiki format, creating a new page for every new question – unless the question is asked again, in which case you’ll get directed to the existing page. From there you can get the answer and add on to it if you know any more information.

Using smart language technology, the site searches its listing of Q&A to find questions that closely match what you’ve asked. If there is no exact match (which might even be the same question in different words) then you get a list of close matches. You can choose one of them as your question or ask your question separately.

So perhaps WikiAnswers may be viewed as a search engine of sorts – a self-growing search engine, that can only get better and better as you ask and answer more and more questions.

Now specializing in ants, acceleration and rickrolling.

Last week was another wonderful wiki one for the world wide web. That’s a lot of w’s, but it doesn’t compare to how many ants there are in this world… Huh? Just read below for the mentions:

Finding Your Question is Easier than Finding a Needle in the Haystack

haystackOne of the questions that I am asked most often is, “How do I find the questions that I’ve posted on WikiAnswers?” Well, I have good news and bad news. The good news: finding your questions is easy. The bad news: there are no voice commands, so you will be required to click your mouse a few times.

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Here is some info on finding questions (along with any answers that contributors have offered):

If you don’t know the URL and your question is not on your Watchlist (located on the left side of the page in the blue shaded area), the easiest way to find it is to search for it (use Option 1).

You could also re-ask your question. That will take you to the existing question page. If you can’t remember the exact wording, ask something similar and see if it pops up in the list of possible same-as existing questions. Find your question and click on the link. If all else fails, click on My Bio Page, where you can view your history of contributions.

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