Breaking And Splicing

In organizing information, it is sometimes cut or broken, the result is either maintained, or a rejoining by splicing, adding or modification results in something different and/or more satisfying

A wiki or information collection is composed strings of characters, formed in words and/or expressions in a page file, which is named for purposes of remembering, linking and expressing meaning of its contents. It should not be isolated, but rather created with the possiblities of sharing and dialogue. Whan participants are willing and collaborative, the page file can grow into what "It wants to be". This at least was what WardCunningham seems to have intended when this notion became implementd as an idea calle WardsWiki as an internet site through cooperative efforts at its initiaion of scores of people. It was not like a party one attends and then departs, but rather like an event in which there are both participants and spectators, and which is recorded and stored for later viewing. It has the essence by which time is suspended and the participations and outcomes can be varied by addition, subtraction and modification by those who live in in a later time space called WikiNow. Slice of time may be preserved in an archive method called versioning, which is unaltered and stored for later consideration of transitions.

In a healthy wiki, the reulting file page is improved and enhanced with corrections and elaborations which make the resulting artifact more satisfying and correct. In a vandalized wiki however improvement is not linear, but is broken usually because of vain human ego. Some argue that it should be a EgolessWiki. Perhaps it would be better if it demonstrated DialogueOnWiki, containing differing and opposing egos which coexist rather than destroy each other. Thus the need for the efforts by which WikiGnomes serve to moderate and preserve distinctions and points of view which are acceptable by groups which differ, but agree amoung themselves. This encourages original content which is not suppressed by a cabal of Established bonified and academically or professionally approved peers who tend to cast in concrete an exclusive, time worn version for those who are "intelligent and rational".

Breaking and splicing as an effort might also be enhanced by InversionAndRearrangment, demonstrating emphasis on different components of an assembly of whatever type.

I identify with the splicing mentioned here. I often add to pages links which connect to things related to what someone else has started, with the idea of increasing the number of ways the new content relates to previous content. This means that someone else who comes along later, either searching or just wandering, has more chance of seeing a pattern. My bonus in doing this is that I often learn things I did not know before, and make connections myself. -- JohnFletcher

CategoryOrganization CategoryWiki