Social knowledge production and services

Choice of the Topic

In this session of study, our goal is to compare social computing tools that do similar work as existing systems and services in the traditional ways. The topic I chose is analyzing and comparing social Q&A sites with libraries and schools. I picked this topic because I am familiar with both of these two systems. I have been studying and working in different school systems for several year. During this time, I have been using numerous Q&A sites in different disciplines and fields. For both of the traditional school systems and the online Q&A sites, I have been serving as a content consumer and contributor. Due to these reasons, I find myself comfortable commenting on both systems with a full range of perspectives.

Just as Always on: Libraries in a World of Permanent Connectivity paper pointed out as mobile communications in the context of the broader diffusion of networking became part of the research, learning and social lives of our users, it resonates with communication and group behaviors of students. It has became a unavoidable question needing to be addressed. They include issues regarding the differences of the tradition learning systems, such as libraries and school, and what Web 2.0 is providing to students and researchers nowadays. Also, how we would improve both systems by learning from each other.

Comparison of Social Q&A Sites vs. Libraries or Schools

Availability

This is an obvious difference between these two system. It is also the main factor that people turn to the Internet for references and help. Always on: Libraries in a World of Permanent Connectivity discussed this and stated that the library has a visibility and brand challenge. but services need to be available. At the same time, the continued competition for resources means that the library needs to be as visible as possible. This is not easy and calls for heightened marketing engagement and local political skills.

Meanwhile, with cheaper and cheaper hardware, it has become a business standard to keep their database servers on continuously. For content provider organizations, these technologies provided essential support for them to host and serve information non-stopping. Well, for us, the end users, this means the resources is available to us any time when we want it. For instance, many people have work setups at home these days. It is not always reliable to ask classmates, professors, or colleagues. They might have the answers, but might not be working in the same time zone as others. 

An example of this situation can be found from the paper, A Librarian's Worst Nightmare. It discussed Yahoo! Answers, and stated that answers draw a large enough crowd that you are likely to get an answer almost instantaneously. Post a semi coherent question and the responses will come within minutes, if not seconds. Of course, this paper might be talking about questions like “advice on your new haircut”, but from another point of view, this demonstrated that there are always people out there on the Internet that are listening and might be able to help you in a timely manner. The quality of the answers is of course an other matter.

We Learn by Teaching

Teaching can be considered as a bi-product of participation in online Q&A sites. In traditional learning systems, such as libraries and lectures. It is usually rare for students to get a chance to play the role of content provider, the teachers, and teach their peers. This is not adopted as part of the schooling practice not only because teachers might not like it, students might not like it either. In fact, it might sound like more work and hence not be favored by students at all. The resistance from both sides makes this hard to practice in schools.

We know, however, there is truth in this old expression, we learn by teaching. And it is in the human being's instinct to share information and knowledge. How could we embrace this and turn it into a good learning mechanism? I turned out with the right encouragement, people are willing to explain, describe, argue, and clarify things to others. In this sense, they become content provider and are playing the role of teachers. The thriving of numerous online Q&A sites is a direct support of this argument.

Examples of this scenario can be found everywhere on Q&A sites. I often go to a math and physics Q&A site called <a href=”http://www.physicsforums.com/”>physicsforums.com</a>. Similar to many other Q&A sites, and as A Librarian's Worst Nightmare said they do not focus users' energy on revision rather than addition. The site is more more devoted to quantity than quality. The answers are therefore not always correct, and the site does not “clear” incorrect answers. From the back and forth discussion, however, people reach the right the answer or get on the right path.

The screenshot above demonstrated such a discussion. One person posted a question, and the others tryed to give him solutions. Due to the nature of online forums, participants tend to polish their answers and make them as concise and clear as possible. After back-and-forth discussions and arguments, they reached an agreement of the correct solution. During this procedure, everybody was a content provider and was trying to share with others what they know about the subject. At the end, they all gained from this discussion.

Anonymity

One of the main reason that the previous benefit can be obtained from online Q&A sites is its anonymity. Think about the tradition lecture, as the paper Social Annotations in Digital Library Collections stated how users are given the option to identify themselves directly influences the quality of content they will contribute. If the use of real names is enforced, many people will be more hesitant to post content.

Ease of retrieval

It is a common feature for online Q&A sites to allow users to quickly access and review their previous activities. It is not quite achievable for traditional learning systems. Some students bring recorders for lectures, but rarely anybody records off-lecture conversations, neither with classmates nor professors. These conversations, however, sometimes contain important information that we would like to retrieve afterward. The paper Social Annotations in Digital Library Collections discussed this point as well.

The screenshot above demonstrated such a retrieval. This view is a retrieval of all previously asked questions by the user “AJH”. A similar view which is not included here demonstrates a retrieval of all previously answered questions. This feature makes online Q&A sites a good learning tool. The conversation and activities are recorded without extra effort.

Quality of answers

As the paper A Librarian's Worst Nightmare pointed out the quality of Q&A sites is guarded by anybody. There is no guarantee to get a good results from consulting these site. As the paper stated, if you started off uncertain, it's hard to imagine you would read the responses and fell any more confident due to many different opinions.

This is an unavoidable problem for online Q&A sites. Meanwhile, it is what we gain from learning in a traditional way. We look up reference books from the library, we make notes of what the professor says in class. These information are mostly true and trustworthy. People might argue that books can be completely wrong and misleading as well, but judging by percentage, library service is probably more trustworthy than Q&A sites. After all, most of time we are listening to some nobody out there on the Internet rather than some established scholars.

On the other hand, we can't throw the baby away with the bath water. We want to consider online Q&A as a different learning experience rather than comparing the quality of pieces of information individually.

Depth of the subject

The paper Always On: Libraries In a World of Permanent Connectivity stated that as resources become more abundant we see that students and researchers are concerned about how they “spend” their attention. If some of us happen to think learning off the Internet from various Q&A sites would be enough for an education, he need to reconsider this conclusion. From my experience, Internet provide a broad view but hardly any deep view. Or I should say it is difficult to dig out the in-depth discussion or explanation of a particular subject. This is true especially when we are so sure about the subject and do not know where exactly to start searching for it. In fact, this is the stage of understanding during research in many cases.

An example of such scenario is referring to professors for some specific knowledge. Professors generally have better knowledge and certain authority in specific subject. We could also turn to the online Q&A sites, but there are times we just need to talk to someone that are experts, and there is no such guarantee from online Q&A sites.

Summary

Online Q&A sites win in the first four comparisons. Social Q&A sites are available at all time. They provide a platform that encourages people to become content provider, and in such a way it encourages people to learn from teaching. Social Q&A sites are operated in an anonymous fashion, so that everybody is free to talk without feeling embarrassed like they would in traditional learning environments. Last but not least, Social Q&A sites logs user activities, and these logs can be used as records, which helps the learners in many obvious ways.

Traditional learning systems, such as libraries and schools, however, win in the last two comparisons. They provide trustworthy solutions, and authority of ambiguities. They also support in-depth discussions with professionals when we need it.

Learn From Each Other

Libraries or Schools Learn from Social Q&A Sites

Based on the discussion above, we could incorporate some of the features from online Q&A sites to traditional learning systems to improve what we have in today's school systems.

Schools might be able to provide an anonymous environment for students to ask questions, and clarify doubts from both professors and peers. With such a mechanism, students would almost for sure be more interactive and inclined to ask questions when they come across them.

There are drawbacks for such a system though. A easy one to imagine is that people might take advantage of the system and turn it into a social network provider. A Librarian's Worst Nightmare pointed out that Yahoo! Answer suffers from this. The difference is school servers might not have the capability to sustain such un-intended activities due to issues like traffic, space, and security.

Another drawback could be collaborating or even cheating in assignments. In order to be a truly anonymous environment, there should be absolutely no way to track people's real identities, regardless of requests from the school or peers. If this criterion is not satisfied, none of the aforementioned benefits would apply. But, in such a system, there's no way to stop activities that are against course policies, such as collaborating.

Social Q&A Sites Learn from Libraries or Schools

Not only traditional learning systems can learn from social Q&A sites, social Q&A sites can benefit from the strengths of traditional learning systems as well. And this an on going effort among many social Q&A sites.

We need in-depth discussions and explanations available from online learning environments, rather than just questions such as “suggestions of my haircut” mentioned in A Librarian's Worst Nightmare. More subject specific, professional forums are needed to attract experts and benefit online community users as well as ordinary learners. The <a href=”http://www.physicsforums.com/”>physicsforums.com</a> is an example of stepping towards such a direction. Many of the comments are provided by Ph.D students or researcher in the field, thus, it provides a good expert views.

The drawback of such a system is also pretty obvious. Raising the standard of contents might discourage people from participating and intimidate ordinary users. A chain reaction of this can be as serious as dropping in popularity, which is everything for online Q&A sites. Nobody wants to talk if he does not think there is anybody out there listening to him.