As I foraged a number of wikis for some crucial information, I had one of those moments where you can see beyond the next few years of your life… a point where the clarity of today meets the obscurity of tomorrow; an “aha” moment. Can Wikipedia take my job?
I don’t mean all jobs but mine or those in my league. I have always earned my living as a writer—a practiced, well-read, well-rehearsed, yet spontaneous writer from a commonwealth country, where a vast majority don’t converse in English (not that we have any other common language; between 22 recognized languages and a zillion others, we are a confused bunch of polyglots).
I am not a doomsday predictor or a negativist – I happen to love Wikipedia and use it extensively; more extensively than I can admit to my clients. But hey, there lies my fear – a lot of people out there are using Wikipedia very extensively. Now, mind you, Wikipedia or wikis in general, have no paid editors or writers. What they have is a bunch of regulars (besides the general public) who edit content passionately for no fee! It’s a case of “have knowledge, will share” syndrome. Can there truly be a better example of an open economy and open source? Now who does that these days—have all those editors come into some form of inheritance? I guess, a good cause finds its backers and I am none the less happy for it. What’s more fascinating is that the company that runs Wikipedia is an NGO – they do not want to sell and shape out, they do not want to be a conglomerate, these guys are out there to genuinely make a difference, to create a world where knowledge is uniformly accessible.
I grew up at a time in India where the encyclopedia cost the earth; well, definitely out of reach for the middle class as it was then. My parents bought me books, yes, but the encyclopedia was the ultimate yet unattainable thing on my wish list. So, I love to visualize a time when every child and adult has access to every word that they want.
But what about my job? What about people like me who get by with their love of the written word besides sheer grit? Let’s see, in the last few years, I have been paid to design and write e-learning courseware and design documentation that uses multimedia. All learning and knowledge is going online, so how long before all of it is wikified. It makes perfect sense to enterprises to allow people to edit and share content. It helps them cut costs and it keeps people engaged. Now come on, don’t tell me you don’t get a high just reading, sharing, and revisiting what you have written. Even as I type this, people are decoding complex content for others through their blogs. This is an “of the people, by the people, for the people” movement that is already fantastic, yet far from its zenith. Is it a matter of time before animators jump into the bandwagon too and create sharable multimedia? The possibilities are indeed endless. And my redundancy imminent!
So, my fellow writers, do you need to find alternative sources of income? I, with my limited vision and knowledge would say no. But it wouldn’t hurt to be flexible, be open to different types of writing assignments, and learn as much as possible (yes, you can use Wikipedia to expand your knowledge). As history has shown, fortune favors those who adapt, those generous at heart, and open to change—now doesn’t that sound a lot like a wiki?
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3 comments:
Hey, I'm the Wiki guy!
Hey Shalini,
A natural and fabulous talent as you can never be rendered jobless by anyone. It’s your choice which job you want to be in.
Honestly, I don't believe that wikis can replace e-learning courses because with wiki you do not have any control over the content. Wikis are a great place to acquire and share knowledge and there is hardly any day when I do not visit wikipedia. But when you are talking about e-learning courses, you need to have a precise control over what you are going to teach. You have objectives, content, reinforcements and assessments to make sure that the learner has learnt what you want him (or he wants) to learn. On the other hand, wikis are open to subjectivity; different people may interpret information differently. I think e-learning is a different ballgame...you must know what you want to teach and according to audience decide how you want to teach and then make sure that you have taught it.
Wikis, in their present state, are oceans of knowledge where one must know precisely what information he or she wants and how to get it using the right keywords.
So I would say wikis and e-learning are complimentary instead of competitors.
Best Regards,
Uttam
Hey Uttam,
Thanks for the compliment and for making a great point.
You are right, wikis and e-learning are complimentary. I wrote the article more from the tech-writing perspective than e-learning, because that's what I am currently involved with. Again, my point is not that we should look for other sources of income, but that we should be flexible and learn as much as we can about content in general. In fact, I think I should change the my blog from Ideaism in E-learning to Ideaism in Content:)
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