COMM 215: Wiki Team and Final Assignment
Your final course project will be a wiki-based assignment challenging you to research digital media in one country and then updating the wiki so that findings are professionally presented. The Digital Media Across Asia wiki (http://comm215.wetpaint.com) provides a Wikipedia-like resource for Asia’s PR, communication, and marketing professionals. Your audiences will be the fictional character we discussed at the start of the term: you are writing for the Swedish professional living in China and supporting a client who seeks PR services in X country. If you can provide well-researched and multimedia content which supports a range of communication professionals, then you will be well on your way to a successful final project.
Learning Objectives
The assignment has three learning objectives. Expand you understanding of a particular Internet and mobile market in Asia. COMM 215 counts as a global and regional study course, so we must learn about the unique characteristics of surrounding markets. Introduce you to wikis, an enterprise 2.0 tool. We will learn how you use a wiki both as a project management tool and also a platform for present multi-media content to readers. Participate in a culture of sharing and knowledge networks. The wiki lets us take our learning and share it with the world. By doing so, we are filling the gap where no comprehensive collection of data about digital media across Asia would otherwise exist.
Grading and Expectations
In parallel with the project’s learning objectives, you will be graded along the following dimensions. Research quality. The wiki assignment challenges you to find the most recent, and the most credible, data regarding your assigned market. Are you able to identify the appropriate sources such as CNNIC (China), government statistical offices, and third-party vendors who present the appropriate data regarding Internet penetration, digital divides, mobile subscriptions, broadband subscriptions, broadband speeds, mobile and broadband pricing, and more? Where multiple sources exist, can you present them in a table summary? Research synthesis. We intend for the wiki to be a reliable public resource for anyone interested in digital media. Therefore, you must synthesize and present the data in professional, easy-touse ways. Please do not merely cut-and-paste, thereby treating the assignment as a data dump. Research citations. Do you cite sources, use footnotes or hyperlinks, and give credit where credit is due? Team process. The wiki reveals every change you make, when you made it, and who made it. Therefore, I can look at this data and asses the quality of your team process. The teams that divide-and-conquer, or rush to complete the assignment at the last minute, will be recognized for doing so. Likewise, teams which use collaborative processes and support each others’ work will be recognized for doing so.
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Wiki technology. The wiki is more than just a piece of paper. You have the opportunity to integrate rich media of many types into your pages. Have you explored the possibilities and widgets available, and seen the possibilities for presenting your findings in engaging and userfriendly ways? Remember, technology should improve the experience for each wiki user. Sharing and building a knowledge community. Are you the first to give and attempt to help professionals around the globe, so that they have a positive experience with the wiki and then spread the word about your work? In short, are your actions likely to build goodwill?
Assignment Timeline
The following table overviews our project timeline. September 8 October 13 November 5 November 10 Assignment launch; teams posted to SMU Vista Three interviews due and posted to wiki Wiki pages due In-class discussion of wiki, findings, and digital media across Asia
Assignment Details
Beginning with the large structure, you have a total of eight pages to complete your assignment. Unfortunately, previous groups in some cases have gone far beyond the eight page allowance, so your team will need to consider the overall information architecture and plan for only eight pages. 1. Country homepage 2. About the country: basic introductory information such as country history, demographics, religious or political traditions, economics, etc. This page is a short introduction to the context. 3. Media landscape: this includes both digital and traditional media. All data regarding Internet and mobile penetration, pricing, digital divides, major newspapers or TV stations, most frequented websites, and more go into this one page. 4. Case studies: what are the best digital media case studies from your country? These can be business uses of Web 2.0, crises, political uses of Web 2.0, companies (e.g., Tencent) or even personal accounts of blogging or microblogging success. 5. Interviews: you need three new interviews this term. You may also keep some of the previous interviews if they are useful, but please build on that existing base with your interviews. 6. Useful links: here you will place a series of links that our target audience might benefit from. Newspaper articles, popular bloggers, RSS feed widgets, company homepages, social media events and organizations, leading PR or marketing practitioners, Slideshare links, etc. 7. From the creators: here you place original content. During previous terms people have created original videos and placed them on YouTube. Other ideas could be original podcasts, Wordle diagrams, essays, network diagrams, Trendr or Google Trends charts, and more. 8. Acknowledgments: this is the place to say thank you, give link love, and make your audience aware that you appreciate their support and sharing. Also, thank previous teams here. Even if teams before you created more than eight pages, please remember the eight page limit. The visual design presenting our content links must also remain consistent, so the seven-part design found on the country homepage needs to retained. The wiki also includes a style guide which we should learn and follow. Please remember that consistency across pages let’s you improve the wiki’s usability. 2|Page
You may elect to keep some of the information currently in your wiki page, update other information, or perhaps delete some. This is your wiki page, so your team needs to make such decisions and proceed accordingly. You are not necessarily obligated to keep a previous team’s work, though you can look at what they have done, learn, and adopt the best ideas. Remember to explore all aspects of wiki technology and figure out if they will improve usability and the visitors’ experience. Soon you will receive an email inviting you to join the wiki as a writer. To reduce duplicating our workload, please accept the email invitation. Additionally, you will need to elect one person to receive advanced status on the wiki, which then allows that person to remove previous content. Writer status, which is what most of you will receive, will not allow you to permanently delete information. We keep most of you at writer status so that we minimize opportunities for irreversible mistakes.
Interviews
You need to begin planning interviews immediately. This requires you to use the proven methods of good blogger relations. Do not ever reach out to people with whom you have not established a basic relationship. Get to know the bloggers or media experts, comment on their work, reply to their tweets, and get to know them. They should also get to know who you are. Once you have a relationship, then apply the techniques of good blogger relations and pursue the interview. Your interview may be by email, Skype, Skype recording, video, or any format you choose. If you choose to ignore this advice, please remember the Prof’s admonition that sometimes bloggers will eat their young. This is a communication class, and relationships essentially open the doors and grease the gears of human relations. Don’t become just another typical student sending a cold request for an interview that your Prof. requires. Your assignment is not their responsibility, so you must build a relationship before asking.
Topics
Wiki topics will be awarded on a first come, first served basis beginning at 7:30 pm on September 8. Any request or email prior to that time will not be considered. You may email your request to Michael@smu.edu.sg. I also encourage you to ask for a read receipt. Please list your first, second, and third country choices. Also, please copy all team members on the message. Time of day will be determined by SMU’s email system. There are a few countries across greater Asia, or the Pacific Rim, which we have not yet documented. You may also propose a new country so long as there appears to be an active Internet market and suitable information for creating a wiki page. If your team has a unique linguistic resource (e.g., Korean, Japanese, Tagalog, etc), then give serious consideration to using this resource to your advantage. Teams and their country choice will be announced on the wiki and FriendFeed.
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