The evolution of the Web caused
major changes to the way we search things and the way we present ourselves on
the Internet. The Web is still evolving
and changing into something bigger and better as time goes on that none of us
are even expecting. The era of Web 1.0
was an era of information. Many businesses would have a website that had some
information about their business and some contact information for further
details. Things such as social media and
online shopping did not occur during the Web 1.0 era. This is mainly because the Web 1.0 era was
only for informative purposes and not interactive purposes. The “social” Web and the “interactive” Web
came along with the Web 2.0 era. This is
when things such as social media came along.
Interaction on websites was now very prominent in the cyber world. Because of interaction, the creator of a
website could get immediate feedback on their business, product, or page. This caused more customer satisfaction and
happy business owners.
The Web 2.0 era is when all of the
interactive websites were born, including the creation of Wiki pages. A Wiki is a website that allows people to
interact, collaborate, and edit the page to keep the content updated for its
viewers. This interactive type of
website became pretty popular in the Web 2.0 era. There is Wikipedia, which is used primarily
for information purposes but is still an interactive website. There is also WikiHow, which is used to teach
people how to do something. Although
Wikis are very popular websites and WikiHow has hundreds and thousands of
pages, still some people don’t know about it.
This is because there are other websites, such as YouTube that are more
popular for learning how to do things.
The problem with the Web 2.0 era is all the competition. There are tons of social media pages; there
are tons of wiki pages, and so on.
Everything is now interactive and new types of websites are being
created to become the next best thing.
WikiHow and YouTube are direct competitors. Many people don’t know about WikiHow because
of the tutorials that are available on YouTube.
YouTube rose in popularity so fast and beat out a lot of its
competition. The addition of the visual
imagery of the video helps a lot of people when it comes to learning how to do
something. Although WikiHow has pictures
for each step, it is much easier to physically watch someone perform whatever
it is that needs to be performed than try to figure it out through one picture. It is also easier to hear someone explain
something out loud than to read directions and try to figure out what they
mean.
That being said, the experience of
writing a WikiHow page is a very important experience that anyone involved in
web design, social media for a company, computer graphics and so on should have
to encounter. WikiHow is such a large
environment. There are thousands and
thousands of pages on any topic you can imagine, and a plethora of pages are
being added everyday. Because of this
factor, WikiHow is not the most stable environment. Keeping this in mind, while writing a WikiHow
page you must continuously back up your work.
The topic you choose to write your
WikiHow page on must be original in some way, because if it isn’t the
administrators will combine it with an already existing topic. When writing a WikiHow page, it is important
to remember that you are teaching someone about something they have no idea how
to do. You are the expert in this
scenario, but you can’t act like you are teaching it to yourself because you
already know what you are doing. It must
be assumed that the reader of your page has no idea about the topic you are
providing information for. This means
that details are very necessary. Along
with details is the necessity of pictures.
Many people are visual learns, which is why YouTube is so popular. Pictures help to explain in further detail
what you cannot explain in words.
Besides good details and the help of visual imagery, another thing you
can use to help get your topic across is the use of internal links within the
WikiHow community. If there is a topic
similar to the topic you are writing about, it might help to link that page for
further information. If you are writing
about an advanced topic and the information is supposed to be common knowledge,
such as an advanced make up tutorial with the basics of make up as common
knowledge, it might help to link to the basics so you don’t have to further
explain more than you need too.
The writing and publishing of a
WikiHow page is an interesting yet slightly stressful experience. It is interesting to learn about the coding
of a webpage and how the smallest mark can create a subheading or a bullet
point and completely change the look of the page itself. It is stressful though because of how
unstable the environment is due to how large it is. A flash drive will be your best friend in the
process of writing a WikiHow. You can
save your changes a million times within the WikiHow environment, but the next
time you come back they probably wont be there.
That is why you have to save a copy to your desktop, a copy to your flash
drive and save in the WikiHow environment as well, just incase. This causes a lot of stress while writing the
Wiki page, but it is also good practice and a good habit to get yourself into
when doing anything.
Interactive websites are a huge
thing now due to the evolution of the Web into Web 2.0 and into the future
versions of the Web as well. People will
go onto the Internet to learn and find anything now because it is always there. The use of Wiki pages for information has
become one of the most helpful resources for a lot of people and the making of
a Wiki page is definitely a good learning experience. Whatever the next version of the Web brings,
Wiki pages will always be a wonderful way to learn and something great to
participate in.
Link to my WikiHow page
Link to information about WikiHow
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