Difference between revisions of "Mission Statement"
From ThePlaz.com
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− | '''People ask me why do I post content on here? Doesn't it help people cheat?''' | + | '''People ask me why do I post content on here? Why do I spend my time? Doesn't it help people cheat?''' |
− | + | There is so much information and good content which is being thrown away. Why not give it a second home and educated thousands of people around the world, some less fortunate then us. | |
− | + | ==Limited Knowledge== | |
+ | Part of the reason of why I do this site is that the distribution of knowledge in the world is limited. Not everyone has the opportunity to attend a very good public school in an advanced nation with good teachers and a good education system. Not every culture has the same amount of schooling as we do, and the internet represents a way to spread knowledge all over the word. So by making sample questions and course work available on ThePlaz.com, I give others the chance to learn from me, from my teachers, and my peers. | ||
− | + | ==Work Lives On== | |
+ | I think that I write pretty good notes and essays. This work shouldn't be done just for my benefit and then thrown away or confined on a hard drive somewhere. I think that I'm making stuff of quality others will want to read, perhaps even if not directly for school. By making it available online and licensing it under the [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/ Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5] people can use it and build upon it. Its also the reason why I made [[SeniorQuoter]], a freely available open source web application to collect senior quotes for high school yearbooks. | ||
− | {{ | + | Plus, I have also found that it gives me a little extra incentive to keep clean, consistent notes and correct my work. This helps me personally do better at school. |
− | + | ==Online Transparency== | |
− | + | Information should be available online to all. This forces transparency and allows people to better connect with one another. The internet is powerful. Content put online can be used in so many ways. | |
− | + | Transparency is necessary to prevent corruption and find better ways of doing things. It's one of the reasons I'm a big fan of the [[Facebook]] mini-feed. It allows you to see what's going on with your friends. | |
− | + | ||
− | + | It's also one of the reasons I created [[Tecker]], the social help site for technology. There's so much information out there. It just needs to be organized. | |
+ | |||
+ | One of the habits in the [[GO Program]] was "Think Win-Win". When people have the information they can build up to find a better solution together. When people do the minimum and find the easy way out, they are not doing what's best. Transparency allows people to want to talk and work together. Look at Wikipedia. It's fully transparent which allows users to communicate and work together to produce great things. | ||
+ | |||
+ | {{Red Message|Talk about privacy is dead}} | ||
+ | ==One to Many== | ||
+ | I find that its more efficient to volunteer One to Many. Normal volunteering and tutoring is One to One. That's fine in some cases, but its inefficient and you can't make a large difference. But when helping One to Many, the things I do affect and help thousands of people. For example my [[French Revolution Timeline]] has been viewed over a thousand times. | ||
+ | |||
+ | I can best make use of my special computer skills to attempt to educate many people at once. That way I can have the biggest influence and make the biggest change. | ||
+ | ==Community== | ||
+ | I initially wanted to create a community like [[Wikipedia]] where others could contribute but after a year that hasn't happened yet. So the site has become more about me exclusively. Perhaps later on other will get the importance of building a community of knowledge. Also some are afraid of changing the page. | ||
+ | ==Needed Content== | ||
+ | Lets face it, I needed some content to put online. I thought I have all of this work for school I'm doing anyway, why not upload that for easy content. It only takes a few minutes to upload stuff, so I have lots of content which attracts visitors with little additional work. | ||
+ | ==Cheating== | ||
+ | You shouldn't copy my work word-for-word and hand it in. That's plagiarism, and we've been against that from our inception. But look at my ideas, my style, links to my sources, and gain knowledge from that. Don't cheat directly, because the only one your cheating is yourself.--[[User:ThePlaz|Plaz]] 22:28, 26 February 2007 (EST) | ||
+ | ==From Where== | ||
+ | If you look at our visitor map for a 7 day period when I wrote this, only 10% of users were from Pennsylvania. The rest come from Fairbanks to Beirut to Bangalore. Below is map of traffic from 2/17/2007 to 2/23/2007. Yes there is a large dot near Philadelphia, but look at all of the smaller dots around the world. | ||
+ | [[Image:Traffic Map.JPG]] |
Revision as of 02:36, 21 March 2007
People ask me why do I post content on here? Why do I spend my time? Doesn't it help people cheat? There is so much information and good content which is being thrown away. Why not give it a second home and educated thousands of people around the world, some less fortunate then us.
Contents |
Limited Knowledge
Part of the reason of why I do this site is that the distribution of knowledge in the world is limited. Not everyone has the opportunity to attend a very good public school in an advanced nation with good teachers and a good education system. Not every culture has the same amount of schooling as we do, and the internet represents a way to spread knowledge all over the word. So by making sample questions and course work available on ThePlaz.com, I give others the chance to learn from me, from my teachers, and my peers.
Work Lives On
I think that I write pretty good notes and essays. This work shouldn't be done just for my benefit and then thrown away or confined on a hard drive somewhere. I think that I'm making stuff of quality others will want to read, perhaps even if not directly for school. By making it available online and licensing it under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 people can use it and build upon it. Its also the reason why I made SeniorQuoter, a freely available open source web application to collect senior quotes for high school yearbooks.
Plus, I have also found that it gives me a little extra incentive to keep clean, consistent notes and correct my work. This helps me personally do better at school.
Online Transparency
Information should be available online to all. This forces transparency and allows people to better connect with one another. The internet is powerful. Content put online can be used in so many ways. Transparency is necessary to prevent corruption and find better ways of doing things. It's one of the reasons I'm a big fan of the Facebook mini-feed. It allows you to see what's going on with your friends.
It's also one of the reasons I created Tecker, the social help site for technology. There's so much information out there. It just needs to be organized.
One of the habits in the GO Program was "Think Win-Win". When people have the information they can build up to find a better solution together. When people do the minimum and find the easy way out, they are not doing what's best. Transparency allows people to want to talk and work together. Look at Wikipedia. It's fully transparent which allows users to communicate and work together to produce great things.
Talk about privacy is dead
One to Many
I find that its more efficient to volunteer One to Many. Normal volunteering and tutoring is One to One. That's fine in some cases, but its inefficient and you can't make a large difference. But when helping One to Many, the things I do affect and help thousands of people. For example my French Revolution Timeline has been viewed over a thousand times.
I can best make use of my special computer skills to attempt to educate many people at once. That way I can have the biggest influence and make the biggest change.
Community
I initially wanted to create a community like Wikipedia where others could contribute but after a year that hasn't happened yet. So the site has become more about me exclusively. Perhaps later on other will get the importance of building a community of knowledge. Also some are afraid of changing the page.
Needed Content
Lets face it, I needed some content to put online. I thought I have all of this work for school I'm doing anyway, why not upload that for easy content. It only takes a few minutes to upload stuff, so I have lots of content which attracts visitors with little additional work.
Cheating
You shouldn't copy my work word-for-word and hand it in. That's plagiarism, and we've been against that from our inception. But look at my ideas, my style, links to my sources, and gain knowledge from that. Don't cheat directly, because the only one your cheating is yourself.--Plaz 22:28, 26 February 2007 (EST)
From Where
If you look at our visitor map for a 7 day period when I wrote this, only 10% of users were from Pennsylvania. The rest come from Fairbanks to Beirut to Bangalore. Below is map of traffic from 2/17/2007 to 2/23/2007. Yes there is a large dot near Philadelphia, but look at all of the smaller dots around the world.