Wikipedia Summaries

Since its how I've been doing it through the semester, and because its much easier, I'm going to compile my summaries into one large post. I have posted for my edits throughout the year, and you can see all of them from the sidebar. I edited 4 articles, and they have all developed quite a bit since I started.

24 (Season 5)
I picked this article up later in the semester after casually searching through articles, and found that Wikipedia had flagged it for not adhering to its generic style (asking to be "wikified"). Therefore, I decided to go to work, and this became my first priority. I found a community revolve around this article more than any, simply because of the fan base that existed for the show, and because it was a dynamic article as the season progressed. With this, I found it very difficult to keep my changes on the page for a long time, because there was always someone trying to improve upon my work. The picture I added, for instance, was removed almost instantly and replaced with another. It was exciting to work on an article such as this, and fun because I enjoyed the topic.

Study Abroad
When I first came upon the study abroad article, there was not much going on, and it was a bit disorganized. I began by adding a section labeling the history of the study abroad program, which started here at the University of Delaware. My next edit was minor, adding some external links and a bit on necessary measures to study abroad. My third edit was major; I utilized information incorrectly posted by another member, cleaned it up and wikified it. The article has progressed greatly since I first started working on it, and I feel it has gained a lot more attention as a result of my contributions.

Personal Trainer
I feel I contributed the most to this article, and stimulated a community to come together. I began by adding an entire section about weight training myths, which then became grounds for countless edits and insights from many different sources. The article has since expanded greatly, and I feel largely responsible for this.

University of Delaware
This was my favorite article to edit. I am a tour guide on campus, so I know a lot of information about the university, and it was great to be able to share that knowledge with others. I added the section about study abroad, as well as technology innovations. Once again, I feel that over time this site has gained more and more buzz, with many people updating it constantly. I even got in a little dispute with another member based on something I added. I said something along the lines of "the school is wireless in campus centers, green areas and most classroom buildings." I immediately had it edited by someone who commented "Evans Hall is not wireless." I had to return and change my edit back to what it was and comment "keyword MOST".

It was an interesting experience to say the least, and I enjoyed the communities created around the articles. I think I will continue to contribute to the articles on my "watchlist" even after the end of the class.

Final Wikipedia edits

Well, I've done my final edits on my remaining three Wikipedia articles. I did not update the University of Delaware article, mainly because I have done plenty of updates to it already, and frankly I like where it is at.
In the Personal trainer article, I made only a minor edit adding a safety procedure that should be used while bench pressing.
In the Study abroad article, I did a lot of work. I found an entry made by another member listed under the "talk" page regarding misconceptions about studying abroad. I therefore moved the entire section into the article and cleaned it up, because it was a grammatical nightmare, though had many very valid things to say.
Finally, in the 24 (Season 5) article, I added some subplot features to include events that occurred in Monday's episode.

So, this officially ends the Wikipedia project. I will be posting later today summarizing the evolution of each of the articles I worked on, so be on the look out for those posts. As for the project as a whole, I enjoyed it greatly. I had never worked with wikis before and I found the process to be exciting, and I can see where my professor is coming from when he states that Wikipedia is one of the keys to our future.

Loocsixela... again? ENOUGH ALREADY!

Try as I might, I did not succeed in winning the loocsixela prize. As you may remember, loocsixela was the word made up by our professor to test search engine optimization techniques. Here I thought I was all savvy and would be able to master the way Google worked, however I was greatly mistaken as I finished somewhere around the 20th result (at least I made the first page), despite all my efforts. We had a guest skype speaker this past Wednesday in class that helped make sense of this mess known as Google and how to increase page ranking. Some techniques involved focusing around certain keywords, much like our loocsixela, and embedding that keyword throughout the page. Places to embed include in the page's title, meta tags, headers, content, and usage frequency throughout the page.

OK that's great, but what happens when you pick a word that nobody searches for? Well, Dave had an answer for that too. He told us about Overture, which is a really cool way to find out what people are searching, so you can better design your tags and be sure your message is heard.

Now, variation exists between what is important depending on where you are searching. Try searching loocsixela in Google and you will find me around #20... however, do the same search in Yahoo!, and guess who's #1? That would be me. ***Note: This has changed since I've posted, last I've checked I was at #4***
I also am listed as #2 when searched through MSN. Therefore, back me up here people; aren't I at least entitled to a consolation prize? Alex, get on that. For now, I will give myself a digital ribbon, and a pat on the back.

Wow Google is awesome

So, in class lately we have been talking about innovative ways Google uses advertising to generate revenue. I still found it hard to connect this information to solid numbers... as in, how does searching for a picture of Britney Spears make any money for Google? Well, I read an interesting article that helped put that exactly into perspective.

I found the article through the Modern Marketing blog. They stated that Google has made $2.25 BILLION dollars in their first quarter simply based on their AdSense program. Numbers like this blow my mind to the point that I expect Dr. Evil to be holding a pinky to his mouth. Google has become a $10 billion company, growing at an average rate of 80 percent.

The craziest thing... they have margins nearing the 50 percent range. So where is all this money going? That's what I'd like to know. Who would have thought that helping people find things would be a $10 billion business plan. Next time I'm at the grocery store I am going to make sure to point out the pickles to the old lady that asks.

Craig: a man with one eye in the land of the blind

I say this title as a joke mostly, because Craig does some amazing work in his blog. I have always used Craig as a reference for posts for a few reasons. 1: he is a personal friend of mine. 2: He is damn hilarious, and pretty good at this whole blog writing thing. 3: It seems like every time I check to post about someone else's blog, either nobody has written anything interesting, or written ANYTHING AT ALL. Therefore, Craig in my eyes in the man with one eye in the land of the blind. So Craig, you are truly a gentleman and a scholar... plus you like 24, which immediately places you high on my list.

So, Craig recently made a great post about the lack of advertising spent in instant messanger applications based on aClick-Z article he had read. The article scorns the industry as a whole for not seeing the opportunity knock to reach an incredibly large target demographic. I also liked that the article's main source was JupiterKagan, which gave me a nice little laugh.

As Craig pointed out, instant messaging applications are HUGE in the everyday life of a college student. By not tapping into its full advertising potential, companies are really just hurting themselves. (I also liked Craig's aside about the away messages of a certain group of individuals.)

In closing, as much as I appreciate the insight provided by the article and his post, I would like to salute Craig once again for continually making his blog interesting and actually worth reading.

Cheers.

Wikipedia Updates

I updated all four of my wikipedia articles. Due to their evolution over the course of the semester, I made mostly only minor edits. In my 24 Season 5 edit, I added a few subplots not previously addressed. In theUniversity of Delaware article, I added the section on technological innovation. In the personal trainer article, I added to the section on costs of training. Finally, in the study abroad article, I added a section of all the necessary steps to study abroad.

Those are all the updates for now, there will surely be more to come!

Loocsixela

Loocsixela has fascinated me throughout the course of this project. I told you earlier that I would reveal what loocsixela was all about, and I shall do just that. However, I am a little frustrated with the way the project has been turning out, so I will replace any profanity I may be thinking with the word "loocsixela". So here it is: loocsixela. Loocsixela is a word made up by our professor that previously did not exist when searched in Google. The loocsixela experiment was designed to see loocsixela Google's use of AdWords and page ranking system. Well, apparently I loocsixela up. I feel like i loocsixela wrote the loocsixela word so many loocsixela times, and its still LOOCSIXELA low on the Google Search Output. This has been loocsixela confusing me, because it makes it difficult to understand how the loocsixela Google's PageRank really works.

The other loocsixela part of the loocsixela assignment was to tag the word loocsixela with a link to www.packers.com, so it looked like this: loocsixela. This was intended to see if there was some sort of loocsixela correlation that could be created between loocsixela and the Green Bay Packers. So, I guess we will have to see what the LoocSIXela will happen next.

loocsixela
LOOCSIXELA
Loocsixela

...and oh yeah, loocsixela.

Dealcatcher.com Presentation

Last Wednesday in class, the founders of Dealcatcher.com came to speak to our class about how they came to be. The company was started by a few University of Delaware students as a way for people to find the best deals on the internet. Their operations began in one of the founder's parents' house, and has since significantly grown, receiving traffic in the 20,000/day range. The most interesting part about their presentation, I found, was their explanation of their newest project, Kolinka. Kolinka is a search engine (currently still in its infancy) in the process of being developed that will search only message boards and forums. The idea is radical and invisionary and can quite possibly take all of the sales clutter out of internet search. As they explained, by searching only forums and message boards, a user searching the keyword "honda transmission problem" would be able to find results more relevant to diagnosing their problem, instead of receiving countless ads for transmission repair specialists. I found it inspiring to see what 2 University of Delaware students with a vision were able to accomplish. It really gave me an insight into the future, as well as an insight into some great online deals....

Interesting Slashdot post; loocsixela, loocsixela, loocsixela

So I just got around to catching up on my blogs since this has been a busy week for me with tours ranging in upwards of 200 people and softball season getting underway, it has been impossible to find any spare time for myself. I just discovered an interesting article on Slashdot which talks about a topic that I am highly interested in; Open Source Technology. The Slashdot article points out Microsoft's recent role and desire to become apart of the open source community. Their intentions are questionable, however, because it is a distinct possibility that Microsoft simply wants to take down the standard from the inside, a "keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer" standpoint. They were even referred to as being a "spider" looking to sneak in on its "prey," open source. Of course Microsoft denies such accusations, claiming their desire to make open source a uniform platform. Yeah right. I will have to go along with ZDNet, where the original article came from. Loocsixela is going strong, oh loocsixela.
So no matter what Microsoft's true intentions are, it is obvious that the world of open source is about to dramatically change now that they are entering the game.