Comments on P E O P L E P O I N T S: Te Ara 3: Pompous Jock here

I Think the Te Ara team have done a wonderful job....

2007-10-05T11:51:00.000+13:00

I Think the Te Ara team have done a wonderful job. It is a great resource and I use it all the time in my capacity as Reference Librarian. I have also referred children to it as well. It was particularly good for a study on immigrantion and early settlemnt to NZ. The stories, diary entries and illustrations are great. A fantastic resource for all New Zealanders. - Kim

I agree Paul, those "What's your story?" segments ...

2007-10-05T11:43:00.000+13:00

I agree Paul, those "What's your story?" segments are disappointing--mainly because of what they could have been.
Here's my attempt to illustrate how I believe those stories should have been told. For comparison you can read the edited story on the Te Ara website. I'd love to hear which you think is the more compelling.
(I realise that at the time of Te Ara's launch nearly three years ago there was a bandwidth argument agin such pieces of multimedia; I don't think such an argument holds up today).

I have come late to this conversation (and there i...

2007-10-05T11:08:00.000+13:00

I have come late to this conversation (and there is so much isn't there?) but my own experiences of Te Ara have not been great so far.

As a librarian / researcher I occasionally have to use it, but the lack of completeness is concerning. It would be useful to have more background as to how it is being compiled, what the long term objectives are and what will happen once "completion" occurs. i guess this is what we are getting from these blog postings, thanks Paul.

As a parent I do not use it either, again because of the completeness problem.

As a some time writer and educator (and putting my 'wine expert' hat on) I AM very concerned by the potential for elitism in such a project. I have contibuted to a couple of wikipedia entries in this field (where I have found errors or people trying to push their bandwagons), but generally I prefer to voice my opinions in forums such as this, where people with an interest in the subject come to meet.

This is where current knowledge management (what I started calling 'KM 2.0') is heading - conversation based - less about the software and more about the people.

Having said that, I do believe that there does need to be a teensy bit of editorial control and some etiquette in KM 2.0 initiatives (I am currently designing some specifically for my workplace, as a part of my knowledge management strategy), but the problem with Te Ara appears to me that it does not allow for the ebb and flow and more importantly DEVELOPMENT of knowledge at all.

Sorry Jock, I find the bush story page not to be that great an example. There are better ways to do this perhaps? Show us something more exciting, please.

I just think of all the amazing people I have met over the years with their incredible 'hobbies' generating amazing knowledge. The Internet is giving these people some tools to spread this knowledge, but some of what they have to say would be ideal in an online encyclopedia. It does not look as though Te Ara could accommodate them as it currently stands.

[As an aside - this posting reminds me that I must re-read Tristram Shandy and the bit about 'hobby horses'.]

I agree with what you're asking for Simon, but it ...

2007-10-05T09:21:00.000+13:00

I agree with what you're asking for Simon, but it doesn't reflect the current political reality.

Governments and corporations are still about content ownership, and will be for a while I suspect. The interesting (and in this case I mean open source) models will continue to be developed by the maverick groups, not for the most part by institutions with accountability to multiple stakeholders - simply because of those multiple stakeholders.

Telling the country we spent $5 million to develop a resource that is ours (incidentally $5 million is not a lot for a public programme) is a far cry from telling the country we spent that amount developing something that anyone can take from.

To look at one stakeholding group alone, Tangata Whenua may regard certain elements of Te Ara as taonga; the notion of taking someone's taonga and offering it to anyone who wanders by is pretty abhorrent. We've seen the results when groups have appropriated from our indigenous culture before, and as a public servant (albeit in local government) of some years experience I couldn't see a good career result for the project leader who exploded a race relations meltdown in their minister's face. It's not a sign of corruption in the system, it's just the way things are.

My instinct is that the gains are going to come from parallel efforts - people such as yourself who are doing the work, albeit hampered by the current constrants. The "information should be free" reality is still very much emergent, but it is growing as a paradigm within society.

Anyhow, that's probably the sum of my deep thoughts on this one... thanks to Paul, Simon, Jock and even John for a good bit of thought-provoking. Have a good weekend all!

As a contributor to wikipedia on New Zealand relat...

2007-10-04T23:52:00.000+13:00

As a contributor to wikipedia on New Zealand related topics it would be really great if Te Ara and other government groups did release some of their information and sources for other projects to use.

Simple things like pictures/photos of:
* All NZ birds
* NZ people (politicians, sports people)
* NZ towns and cities.

In many cases organisations like Te Ara or Archive NZ have this sort of material (often out of copyright) but don't make it available or put they put restrictive useage on it.

Fair enough if Te Ara don't want to create a wiki but it would b nice if tehy could give open content projects some ability to reuse what they produce.

The fascinating thing about this discussion as a w...

2007-10-04T17:05:00.000+13:00

The fascinating thing about this discussion as a watcher of Web 2.0 and the NZ library scene is the cringe I feel when I see the cry of "someone should start a wiki!"

The whole point of Web 2 to me is that if someone feels a wiki could do a better job they should by all means go ahead and do so, there are plenty of free wiki servers out there.

The Te Ara group decided not to, and more power to them. If their approach is a method doomed to extinction (and please note I am not saying I think this is the case) then our brave commenter John could do no better than to create, recruit for and lead a grassroots NZ information wiki to prove his point. It'd be the easiest thing to do technically, and all it would take is some time and effort.

Cynically though, I suspect that John has exactly enough passion about this subject to spend the time and effort to write a blistering pseudo-anonymous comment, and no more. The internet is full of folks making ad hominem (ad organisatum?) statements from the comfort of their computer chairs, and less full of people actually trying to create a difference based on their beliefs.

Me, I'm trying to teach people about Web 2, as I know Paul is. What is John doing?