Ninth Post: Practical 7

For the lesson on Practical 7, the first task we were handed was to read an article on citizen journalism and basically write down what we thought it was. As everyone's opinions were gathered on the white board, it was then used for the second part of the lesson which was to evaluate STOMP (www.stomp.com.sg) as a citizen journalism site and whether, by following the three guidelines made which were based on our opinions, it was a site which promoted citizen journalism well. In the end, the various groups formed for the activity gave somewhat similar opinions about the evaluation but provided different materials for the content which made it very interesting and funny as well.

Well, for the reflection, the criteria for evaluation that I would use to evaluate STOMP would be, Purpose, Coverage and Usability. Coverage is important to use as a criteria for evaluation on a citizen journalism site like STOMP as the articles and opinions submitted by the many users would cover a very wide range of topics. Also, as STOMP is a citizen journalism website, people would also post about things happening in their daily lives. With this many things to post about, there would no doubt be an abundance of stuff to find in STOMP and therefore, it would successfully cover the criteria of Coverage.

What is the purpose of STOMP? Well, as a citizen journalism website, it should no doubt be allowing of users to contribute articles and comments to be one of them. The criteria of Purpose used to evaluate STOMP is to ensure that it fits the bill to be a successful citizen journalism site. With all the different articles and comments that fit the criteria of Coverage, the Purpose of the site is definitely covered as well as people are allowed to post their articles for a definitive purpose of sharing their experiences as well as feelings with the people who visit the site.

Usability is also used to evaluate STOMP as it is important for a user-based site to be easy to handle. Even if the system is the best in the world, poor usability would deter people from using the system to submit their articles and stuff as they would have no idea on what to do in order for it to run. On this basis, STOMP definitely covers usability well as their site is well setup and allows users to go to different sections without much hassle.

From this activity, I have learnt that it is important for different websites to be evaluated thoroughly as it would give myself as well as other visitors of the site a better idea on what the site has to offer and whether it fulfills what it has said to provide. As such, the different evaluation criteria definitely serves a very large purpose as well as a wide range of assessing any given site and whether it is a good one.

Sharing views on wiki is no doubt an activity that is enjoyable as you get to pen down your thoughts on a single subject and share your opinion with others. It is more enjoyable to read through what others have written though, as you get to get a small idea on how their mindset is different from yours based on the same subject. Not only that, you would also get to learn more from what you have missed and others have pointed out. Wiki-sharing is therefore, a very meaningful activity which should be done more often so as to bring out the relevant thinking skill in everyone, as well as to ensure that everyone gets to share and no one is left out.