It has learning curves for typical games and apps. According to the
author, the learning curve for a typical application is roughly
exponential. Here is a quote:
"Notice it takes a while to build up competent skills in a traditional
app. There is so much
complexity that comes from feature piled on top of feature, it is easy
to get confused. You
can spend 12 months gaining a basic level of competence in Photoshop.
But the good news is that there is a life time worth of depth.
This initial period of learning is very frustrating. You lose massive
numbers of users. I took
3 years to learn Photoshop on my own. The basic metaphor just made no
sense to me
when I used the trial. In this modern world where apps need people to
pick them, up try
them out and fall in love, this long learning curve is often the kiss
of death for a new
company."
Then it compares other learning curves - web 2.0 little apps, web 2.0
big apps, and games. I find it so fascinating I printed it out and put
it on my "wall of awesome."
We have to face the fact that for most people, at this point in
history, learning wiki syntax from scratch to create their own simple
pages is "the kiss of death" for participation. What WE is doing with
classes is changing this fact, because people are willing to go to
greater lengths of learning in a class. People already expect
exponential learning curves in classes - they expect to plow through
tough, non-intuitive content. However, consider this: I can invite a
random person into a Google Doc and they never complain about their
inability to contribute. In fact, I typically observe them being
active as soon as they register. This is not a picture I see inviting
people to non-WYSIWYG pages.
"Simple" is also social. For example, (simple)=(frequently used):
People use applications like MS Word for text editing because these
programs are already widespread. They probably receive Word documents
in email and observe everybody else use it. "Everybody drives" in the
USA, so it's simple, but I remember eighties in Russia when driving
was considered very complex, courses took forever, and women in
general were considered all but incapable of learning the skill. There
used to be typists, and typing was considered a complex skill worthy
of being a profession. Now babies start learning to type before they
start learning to walk.
My own conclusion: I only work with WYSIWYG wikies for projects I
organize. I join other people's projects involving wiki syntax, since
I already know it. I feel shy, given the years of courses in
programming and CS, to confess I had issues and unpleasantness
learning wiki syntax, but it's true. I see no reason to teach people
wiki syntax until they want to do things beyond typing words and
making them bold or italic - things like creating templates or working
with includes. "Non-programmers" in general tend to select the
highest-order, most object-oriented tools they can lay their hands on
that still fulfills their goals. So, if I want people to learn wiki
syntax, my projects better demand some actions beyond "typing words,
making headings, inserting pictures."
--
Cheers,
MariaD
Make math your own, to make your own math.
http://www.naturalmath.com social math site
http://www.phenixsolutions.com empowering our innovations
This is an excellent tutorial! It will really help those who are
committed to a large projects using wikis, or any other mark-up
language for that matter.
I think it's useful mostly to people who already remember a large
chunk of the syntax by heart, though. For those who do not remember
the wiki syntax yet, learning will be delayed by removing the
immediate feedback loop of clicking "preview" - unless I missed some
easy way for feedback loops. So, this tutorial is an "intermediate"
step, for those already in some relatively involved wiki-projects.
"The power of less" conversation applies mostly to beginners, in my
mind - people not yet committed to using wikis, and trying to check it
all out and decide.
Thanks again for the tutorial - I will definitely use it.
--
Cheers,
MariaD
Make math your own, to make your own math.
http://www.naturalmath.com social math site
http://www.phenixsolutions.com empowering our innovations