Wikibutt - Learning 2.0

I thought the term 'wikibutt' was amusing. I checked it on Google and found a guy who's Facebook page is Wiki Butt, so maybe that's his name, or at least nom de guerre. Through Google I also found some images on Photobucket of the rear-end of a hedgehog whose name, presumably, is Wiki.

Perhaps it's my age, my horrible childhood (joke - I don't do emoticons), my lack of hair, or my shoe size but I really, really have problems with the 'lack of control' many of the sites described in the Learning 2.0 Wiki lesson when they discuss the downsides to making a Wiki. I just don't see the point in putting something together, especially something involving planning and collaborative effort, that any idiot with access to a computer can mess with or mess up. What am I missing?

I'm a latecomer to Wikipedia but have embraced (sic) it only because now I understand the editorial process.

All that said, to create and use a wiki in a controlled (there's that word again) group sounds absolutely brilliant. I wonder if they would be better places for our teams / groups to work together assembling our final project web sites? Better, say, than group chat rooms, like Meebo, or Google docs? Wait - did I say there was no 550 Wiki? I DON'T THINK SO...BUT NOW THERE IS @ http://sci550.pbworks.com

Questions, questions, questions...

And I'm still trying to come up with a clever definition for Wikibutt: perhaps it's someone who always wants everyone to do whatever he / she is up to at the moment but then goes off to the next thing with no warning and begins the process all over. Kind of like 'scattered 2.0.' Example: "I'm really frustrated with Paul: first he put together this group of us to go to Ireland and research our Irish roots there, all together to see if there were any overlaps so we could compare those to the connections we have made here. Then, without warning, he dropped this for a project on poisonous frog encounters in Brazil. What a wikibutt!"

flickr, flickr, flickr, sputter, sputter

Well as some of you will soon see if you haven't already I've flicker'd my heart out and don't really know what I have to show for it...

On the one hand learning about these programs and possibilities is fascinating; on the other there's life in meat space (my favorite term for all non-cyber areas coined as the internet emerged and then, for all intents and purposes, lost in the shuffle to more appealing terms) with its never ceasing demands.

but we carry on nonetheless...in or out of smilebox, flickering weakly until we sputter out completely, leaving a series of 1's and 0's for posterity

Happy Thought # 49,290