Make Your Friends Into Action Figures!

This week's Featured Online Resource is Shape Me Miniatures from a company called Shapeways.

First, about the company and its services. They provide 3D printing--say you'd like a small sailboat for a knicknack. About three inches long, four or five ounces. You'd like to design your own. Use CAD or some sort of design software, send them the design, and via 3D printing they fabricate the boat or whichever item you choose and ship it to you. Futurist Ray Kurzweil has predicted that in the future all objects we own, we'll make ourselves by this method, and we're now beginning to see the technology in play.

As for the Shape Me Miniatures, they are little dolls (though busts are also available) in the image of your mother, grandmother, friends, etc. You send in a photo from the front and one in profile, pay your fee, and get back a little doll.

Please excuse the way in which this post sounds like a commercial. I'm not interested in generating business for this company, but providing information. The fact that 3D printing is now afoot and seemingly relatively accessible , is to me, an epochal happening in the world of information. It is another way in which the line between creator and consumer is blurred.

So, while we usually include websites that provide free information, this one's an exception, and I think just looking at the website is enlightening and inspiring.

Wikipedia Bibliography

Wikipedia Bibliography, Sept. 09 installment

There's no letup in the storm of attention on Wikipedia and other forms of user-created content. And in addition to the mainstream media, scholarly journals are
publishing on the issue with increasing frequency.
The philosophical issues surrounding social knowledge are as important as any issue to students and faculty: let's all be as informed as possible.

Here's a selective bibliography of recent articles focusing specifically
on Wikipedia. Within a particular category they are in descending chronological order. Each comes with a permalink to its citation within its FSU database (log-in required). Some will allow you full-text access and some will not.


In Academia

Polkinghorne, S., & Hoffman, C. (2009, June). Crown Jewel or Pure Evil? Wikipedia Through an Information Literacy Lens. Feliciter, 55(3), 101-103.
Link

Badke, W. (2009, March). Stepping Beyond WIKIPEDIA. Educational Leadership, 66(6), 54-58.
Link
Camihort, K. (2009, March). Students as Creators of Knowledge: When Wikipedia Is the Assignment. Athletic Therapy Today, 14(2), 30-34.
Link
Leaver, T. (2009, March). WIKIPEDIA: WHAT'S IN IT FOR TEACHERS?. Screen Education
Link
Crovitz, D., & Smoot, W. (2009, January). Wikipedia: Friend, Not Foe. English Journal, 98(3), 91-97.
Link


Characteristics of Contributors 

Ha, J., & Kim, Y. (2009, Spring2009). An Exploration on On-line Mass Collaboration: focusing on its motivation structure. International Journal of Social Sciences, 4(2), 138-143.
Link
Amichai-Hamburger, Y., Lamdan, N., Madiel, R., & Hayat, T. (2008, December). Personality Characteristics of Wikipedia Members. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 11(6), 679-681.
Link
Nov, O., & Kuk, G. (2008, September 17). Open source content contributors’ response to free-riding: The effect of personality and context. Computers in Human Behavior, 24(6), 2848-2861. Retrieved September 16, 2009, doi:10.1016/j.chb.2008.04.009
Link

Information Theory

Anthony, D., Smith, S., & Williamson, T. (2009, August). THE CASE OF THE ONLINE ENCYCLOPEDIA WIKIPEDIA. Rationality & Society, 21(3), 283-306. Retrieved September 16, 2009, doi:10.1177/1043463109336804
Link
Hansen, S., Berente, N., & Lyytinen, K. (2009, January). Wikipedia, Critical Social Theory, and the Possibility of Rational Discourse. Information Society, 25(1), 38-59. Retrieved September 16, 2009, doi:10.1080/01972240802587562
Link
Garfinkel, S. (2008, November). Wikipedia and the Meaning of Truth. Technology Review, 111(6), 84-86.
Link