The internet has given people new ways to be creative and to add their contribution to an already enormous body of information. Through blogs, people can keep a diary, give their opinion or supply information on a regular basis. Photo-sharing sites make family or holiday snaps instantly accessible around the world. Sites like Orkut, a community social network, make it possible to meet people around the world with similar interests.
Another community site going from strength to strength is Wikipedia which is basically an encyclopaedia in which topics can be written about, commented on or edited. Calling for a factual and neutral point of view, there is bureaucratic control to maintain a certain standard. The Hawaiian term wiki means fast or fast runner. There are now wikitionaries, wiki-quotes, wikibook service (to facilitate the writing of collaborative books) wikinews, wikispecies (animals) and wikimedia.
WikiIreland
Now a wiki has been set up specifically to deal with Ireland. Its creator, John Breslin of the National University of Ireland, Galway, said the main idea was to have a place to store anything about Ireland whether it is culture, history, genealogy or story-telling. There was a need for this. “It is difficult to put in something local in Wikipedia because it may not be appropriate, its importance may not be recognised and it may not last long,” said Mr. Breslin.
Mr. Breslin, who developed the idea for the Digital Enterprise Research Institute, has no background in culture or history but likes organising, collecting and storing. His own personal project under the wiki banner was to enter the vast store of songs and long poems held by his grandfather Jack Casey from County Clare. Now in his 94th year, Mr. Casey has a talent for recitations and has filled three ledgers with things that he liked. As some of these were learned orally, it may be the only written record existing.
Once it is up and running, a wiki becomes a community effort. People add and update it. The same is true for WikiIreland. A wiki is not hard to set up, according the Mr. Breslin. There are several ways. Through wikispaces you can download software on to your own website or you can sign up your own free wiki through wikia (wikicities).
The red squirrel was chosen as a logo for WikiIreland representing Irish culture and history. The red squirrel is something indigenous to Ireland that is under threat from the grey squirrel which was introduced here recently from North America. A couple of hundred items from Wikapedia were used to start off the wiki. Since Wikapedia encourages free documentation license, you can use anything you find there. Then people were encouraged to start their own articles within the Irish one. A community site needs a driving source to get it going. It grows by word of mouth and through Google. Although the main drive at the moment is Galway-based, more and more people are adding to and creating articles.
I have registered as the West Residents’ Association, hoping to sometime create an article about this unique area of Galway. I have connections in Canada who have expressed interest in the category ‘the Irish in Canada’. There are sub-categories of ‘the Irish in Quebec’, the Irish in Newfoundland’ and so on but there is no listing for ‘the Irish in New Brunswick’. I will encourage my friends to start one. Have you a story, a bit of information, an interesting titbit that relates to Ireland? Write, add to or edit an article at http://www.wiki.ie/.
And what is the future of WikiIreland. Apart from it growing and gaining a life of its own, John Breslin says he envisages the addition of more multimedia elements such as audio and visual content. It is mostly text-based at the moment but more images and sound will play a part in the near future, especially to record such things as folklore and stories from family members. We are writing our own history!
No comments:
Post a Comment