Reflections on Contributions to the Class Wiki Class Wiki

¶ … Wiki: Reflections on Contributions to the Class Wiki

Reflections on Contributions to the Class Wiki: Class Wiki

Weekly Report on Progress and Contributions to the Wiki

This week, my main focus was to research on the risks and benefits associated with the adoption of social media technologies in the organizational setting. I categorized the benefits into three: benefits to employees, benefits to the customer, and benefits to other stakeholders. I identified that such technologies benefit employees through improved knowledge management, greater opportunities for collaboration, reduced internal communication costs, improved training, and opportunities to take part in the organization's staffing processes. Benefits to the customer included the development of better products and improved customer service occasioned by facilitated data mining. Finally, benefits to other stakeholders such as suppliers and shareholders include improved information-sharing and reduced costs of external communication. In terms of risk, I identified two major concerns related to social media adoption: disruption of hierarchical structures and reduced employee productivity.

I compared this list to those of other students, identified similarities, made the necessary additions, and then posted the final list to the wiki. In addition, I was able to sharpen my editing skills, and the ability to link information to other pages on the wiki (Keyes, 2013). This I did by creating an annotated bibliography of selected resources that had proven crucial in the conduction of my summative assignments, posting the same to the wiki, and then reviewing other pages on the wiki for connected ideas, authors or content. I then made edits, and created links between the information I had posted, and related content in these pages.

This required me to engage with other students, understand why they held a particular viewpoint, explain my viewpoint to them, and hold negotiations until a common ground is reached. I made edits to information posted on the wiki by other students, and others also made edits to what I had posted. However, before making any edits or criticizing anyone's viewpoint, I communicated with them to understand why they thought the way they did, and to explain my own views to them.

I realized that a synergy developed whenever I did this, or whenever someone requested to make edits to my work, and engaged me on the same. I discovered that our collective answers are better than my individual answers, and that every time I collaborate and engage with another student, we produce new knowledge that reflects what we have learned both in the course content, and in our personal experiences (Matthew, Felvegi & Callaway, 2009). Collectively, we all take ownership in the project, take pride in our work, and develop an appreciation for each others' contributions.

This high degree of collaboration also sparks creativity in individual users. When we post and pool ideas, or when another student makes a valid request to edit one's contribution, the requested party reacts, but is forced to reflect, and deepen their insights so they are able to effectively support their viewpoints (Matthew et al., 2009).