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Adam Torgerson, HW2 1) Read the article: “In Defense of Cheating” by Don Norman, accessible via: http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/InDefenseOfCheating.html and comment on the following issue: do you agree or disagree with Norman’s position? Why? I believe Norman's position is insightful, but cannot be applied to all areas of learning. Some material is entirely too technical to use this approach with. For example, in a math course, no amount of discussion with others or copying other work will provide you with an intimate understanding of the subject matter. Example problems must be worked and theorems applied to real situations before some subjects can be comprehended. On the other hand, some subjects, such as the humanities, can benefit greatly from this approach since in these subjects, as these concepts are more open to discussion and unique viewpoints. how does his view relate to your own experience in your school, university, and working life (in case you have worked somewhere sometimes)? His view can be supported through some of my experiences, but again, it is not complete. Many times in an office environment, he is exactly correct: you will be a member of your team contributing what you can, where your experience fills the gap. In these situations, it is better to know how to work with others, especially how to use others to cover your weak points. And many times, even if you do not immediately know the answer, you will have ample time to look it up, or ask someone who does know the answer for help. But there are also times, especially when working towards a deadline, when you will not have enough time to look up what you do not readily know, or those around you will be too busy to help. Also, everyone can not just go to everyone else for help with technicalities they do not understand. Someone, somewhere, needs to be able to understand the subject and solve the problem. Often that means knowing the intricacies of a system well enough to just think about them, rather than pour over the relevant documentation cluelessly. 2) Visit one of the following websites and explore it as a medium for collaboration http://www.experts-exchange.com/ http://www.mamamedia.com I choose http://www.mamamedia.com 3) Briefly discuss for your chosen website: what did you find interesting about it? The thing I found most interesting is the way it proclaims to cater to kids, yet has a rather standard corporate smelling look and feel. I don't think a child would have an easy time using the website unless they were already familiar with sites like these or had assistance from someone. There are confusing terms like "Site Map", and on the kids' sign up page it says "Please read our terms of use and privacy policy.", which are both fairly technical documents I doubt any kid would understand. Lastly, their terms of use dictate users provide Mamamedia with copyright priveleges to anything they submit to the site, disallowing even posting the same thing on a personal website. Why would a kid's website need to retain this kind of control over the content their users provide them with? in which way is it related to “collaboration”? It is bringing kids together over the Internet. It is collaborative in the message boards, chatting, jokes and games, etc. how does it compare with the Swiki used for our class? The Swiki is much more flexible since anyone can edit it. Mamamedia is largely static and any user submissions appear to go through some kind of moderation process. That is somewhat understandable though, since the site is targeted and kids and is open to the greater Internet. 4) which is your favorite website / system in support of collaboration (briefly justify your opinion)! My favorite collaborative website is http://www.sourceforge.net. It is a place where Open Source projects can receieve hosting for free, and includes several tools for collaborative software development, such as forums, email lists, version control software and web page hosting. By simply creating a project account on Sourceforge, anyone is able to release their project to the Open Source community, enabling other developers and users to find it, and providing a wealth of services to many projects which may have problems providing those services.In the spirit of Open Source, the software which runs Sourceforge is itself Open Source, allowing anyone who is interested to learn about the way it works and make contributions of their own. Another interesting feature of Sourceforge is the user profiles, which if public can be searched by other users. So if you are a developer with a certain skillset, you can post that on the site and other projects' developers can access that data and contact you with information about their project. Also, projects can post requests for help or specific requirements or skillsets their team is looking for. You may browse these requests, to see if one might interest you. Since everything is Open Source and hosted locally on Sourceforge, you can even browse the source code for a project interactively, through the web. 5) have you ever read a book(s) / article(s) (or books) about collaboration? if yes: choose the most important one The one that comes to mind is "The Cathedral and the Bazaar", by Eric Steven Raymond. provide title and one paragraph what you found interesting about it! I find this essay interesting because it is one of the first descriptions of a new software culture which was emerging at the time it was written. It describes the Open Source development process, and distinguishes it from more classic software development processes. Liking traditional software development practices to a Cathedral, since they are secretive and often more rigid in their schedules and practices, he describes the Open Sources process as a Bazaar, an open market in which people uniquely bring their skillset and outlook. Eric argues that it is important to treat users of Open Source software like developers, because often they will bring their skillset to the project. One important way to get users is to release the code early, and to release it often. This will allow others to have access to the code and improve it or offer suggestions as the development process continues, instead of waiting to redesign it with better ideas in the next version. Of course with freely available source code, anyone is welcome to study and contribute to an Open Source project. Often others will bring a unique perpspective to the project, possibly taking it in directions the original team had not imagined or though possible. He also goes on to describe some of the social aspects of the Open Source community and how the projects are managed.
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