LaGuardia Community College Wagner’s Achieve – Aisel Omerbashi
LaGuardia Community College Wagner’s Achieve
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Tag Archives: wikiGalaxy
03. Shirley Li – WikiGalaxy: A Visualization of Wikipedia Rabbit Holes
The name WikiGalaxy is beautifully given to the site and that is very true. I always end up clicking one of those blue highlighted words/links and like many of us I become dependent of the Rabbit Holes. The latest that I was captivated by the Rabbit Hole was when I was reading about Vinegar Hill and Brooklyn. I kept clicking on the highlighted words and it took me by surprise somewhere completely different from what I was supposed to be focused on. So that’s the funny part, that for that first assignment it took me a lot more time then the two preceding assignments combined. The time was longer but worth it since I got to learn stuff that I never heard before or stuff that I always wanted to read about. So my conclusion is that if you have a deadline you should force yourself not to be prey of Rabbit Hole, otherwise open your horizon by clicking those links that interest you.
Reflection #3: WikiGalaxy: A Visualization of Wikipedia Rabbit Holes
I really enjoyed reading about the author’s experience with using Wikipedia for one specific purpose and then hours later finding herself on a completely unrelated topic like the dog Air Bud. It’s a situation that I find myself in from time to time. I personally enjoy when I find myself wandering into this infamous Wikipedia Rabbit Hole. This is the moment when I actually learn the most. I become open to topics that I may know very little about or even ones that I’ve never heard of.
I have never heard of WikiGalaxy prior to reading this article. The way the author illustrates how it works makes it seem even more ideal for wandering down the rabbit hole. I think my favorite part of what I learned about WikiGalaxy is that the user is able to see how each piece of information is connected to the last. Little yellow lines are provided to connect each link with lines that vary in length depending on relevance. I think the amount of content all at once may seem overwhelming, but it can only lead to growing one’s knowledge.
Reflections #3: Rabbit Holes
The idea of a virtual world, or virtual sphere is clearly explored through the wikigalaxy. While theoretical, wikigalaxy also uses information a map out different articles to each other. By nature, and as described by this article, I sometimes find myself scrambling through various articles of different subjects through links and various sources. It’s fun to see this phenomenon in 3 dimensions, whereas a web page feels much more like a 2 dimensional interface.
I wonder what would happen if we suddenly decide to change search engines to look like this. Would we begin to lose focus, and thus follow rabbit holes? Or will we be driven by how links look like, rather than the use of keywords?
Third 100 Word Reflection: WikiGalaxy
I am aware that I constantly fall into a Wikipedia Rabbit Hole time and time again, no doubt about it. Reading this short piece on Wikipedia Rabbit Holes and how the visualization chain is mapped out was pretty cool. I feel like in the moment, we might not remember how we got from A to K, I do however feel like when we are going in deeper and deeper, our brain already maps out the paths, or the connections and tucks away the information. I believe it is important to fall into a Wikipedia Rabbit Hole every now and then.
WikiGalaxy and Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Sources
After viewing the video and reading about the WikiGalaxy, along with the article about primary, secondary, and tertiary sources, I find that a visualization about the relevance of sources and their relationships indicated by a link, the yellow line, is “pretty” amazing. To be able to see and sense the closeness or distances of the relationships of sources can provide another means of gauging how well or important sources would be to my research. This would aid in keeping me “on-track” and in helping me to save time on gathering relevant information for my researches. I will no longer be swamped by, literally, millions of search results and be forced to rummage through seemingly infinite amounts of data that would cost me invaluable time, energy, resources, etc. I would not have to rely solely on trying to figure out “keywords,” appropriate databases, and ideal search engines. I could now see how closely articles would be related to my topics. I like this “new” feature!
