AKILU MUHAMMAD RIBI
MLS/EDUC/49789/05-06
ICT IN INFORMATION MANAGEMENT
LIBS 712

ASSIGNMENT: Review of a paper titled- “INNOVATION SYSTEMS AND
THE LEARNING PROCESS”

The paper highlights the opportunities offered by ICTs in the social and economic transformations of societies, as evident in the new ways of learning are giving rise to innovative knowledge networks which is facilitating the creation and exchange of information in industrialised countries.
The main focus of the paper is on how people in public and private sectors are learning to organise and manage ICTs, and how this is affecting the production of knowledge and its distribution, and the impact of ICTs in product and process innovations in the manufacturing sector.
Specific experiences from both industrialised and developing countries were illustrated. It provides insight into the process of organisational learning and the importance of linkages and how the linkages and the learning process are changing with application of ICTs.
The first section looks at the new modes of knowledge production that are emerging in the industrialised countries and considers their implications for developing countries.
The second section considers the growing importance of linkages and how it is affected by the application of ICTs.
Other sections of the paper considers among other things the issue of skills and capabilities needed for the productive use of ICTs. China was particularly taken as a case study in the area of management of organisational change and technological innovations. Its impact on the Chinese economic growth was dismissed extensively.
Finally, emphasis is laid on the types of knowledge needed for innovative ICT application.
It is an undisputable fact that knowledge is the bedrock of any society be it social, economic or technological. For any society to be part of the global knowledge and information society, it must have to adopt the acquisition and application of ICT in its knowledge acquisition and production skills. This will in turn translate into technological innovations for meaningful growth and development, as evident in the case of China. This is indeed a wake up call for Nigeria and other developing nations.

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AKILU MUHAMMAD RIBI
MLS/EDUC/49789/05-06
ICT IN INFORMATION MANAGEMENT
LIBS 712

ASSIGNMENT: Notes on Wikki, Blog, List Serv, Newsgroup,
Mailing list

1. WIKKI:
This is a website that allows the users to easily add, remove or edit and change some available content, sometimes without need for registration. This makes wiki an effective tool for collaborative authoring.
The term “wikki” also refers to the collaborative software that facilitates the operation of such a website or to certain specific wiki sites, including the wikiwiki web and the wikipedia. The word is sometimes interpreted as the backronym for “what I know is”, which describes the knowledge contribution, storage and exchange function.
In this century, wikis were increasingly adopted in the collaborative software. Today some companies use it as their only replacement for static intranets.
A wiki is an editable website that does not require users to know HTML. Many have a system to record changes at any time, a page can be reverted to its original format, and has tools that enable users to monitor changes constantly.
A wiki enable documents to be written, collectively in a simple makeup language using a web browser. A simple page is referred to as a “wiki page”, while the entire body of pages is the “wiki”. It is actually a simple user-maintained database for searching or even creating information. It’s defining characteristics is the ease with which pages can be created and updated.

2. BLOG:
The term “weblog” was coined by Jorn Barger in Dec 17, 1997. The short form “blog” was coined by Peter Merholz, who jokingly broke the word ‘weblog’ into the phrase ‘we blog’ on the side bar of his blog. Peterme.com in 1999. This was quickly adopted as both noun and verb – ‘to blog’ meanings to ‘to edit one’s weblog’ or ‘to post to one’s weblog’.
Early weblogs were simply manually updated components of common websites. However, the evolution of tools to facilitate the production and maintenance of websites posted in said chronological fashion made the publishing process feasible to a much larger and technical population. This resulted in the distinct class of online publishing that produced the blogs recognised today. The use of some sort of browser-based software is now a typical aspect of ‘blogging”. Blogs can be listed by dedicated blog hosting services or they can be run using blog software as blogger or live journal or regular web hosting services, as ‘Dream Host’.
The modern blog evolved from the online diary where people would keep running account of their personal lives. Most of such writers call themselves diarists, journalists or journalers. A few call themselves Escribitionists.
Blogging combined the personal web page with tools to make linking to other pages easier – specifically, blogrolls and trackbacks. This, with weblog search engine enable bloggers to track the threads that connect them to others with similar interest.
These are different types of blogs depending on the
a. Content
b. Media type – Vlog, linklog, photolog
c. Device – Moblog e.g mobile phone in PDA
d. Genre – Subject e.g political blog or travel blog
e. Legal status – private or business.

3. LIST SERV:
Is an automatic mailing list server developed by Eric Thomas for BITNET in 1986. When e-mail is addressed to a LIST SERV mailing list, it is automatically broadcast to everyone on the list. The result is similar to a group, a newsgroup or forum, except that the messages are transmitted as e-mail and are therefore available only to individuals on the list.
A list serv. is a software that distributes resources available to the mailing list and automatically manage the list e.g BITNET.

4. MAILING LIST
Is a group of users with a shared interest whose e-mail addresses are converted together in an electronic list that can be used to send e-mail to each member on the list. The key to a mailing list is a program called a list server, which receives and distributes postings, and automatically manages subscriptions.
Mailing list provides a forum for users from all over the world to ask questions and have them answered by others with similar interest. They can be a good place to get specialised, difficult-to-obtain information. They are also good vehicles for discussion, and covers nearly every imaginable subject.
To participate you only have to know how to use e-mail, you do not need to learn any new software. This is unlike newsgroup which you must learn to operate newsreader.

5. NEWSGROUP:
This is a discussion group in which computer users throughout the world participate. Users interested in a particular topic may subscribe to the same newsgroup. Barriers such as age, gender etc. do not play any role in discussions because users see only messages from each other; usually someone e-mail a message called ‘an article’ to the group at any time. The message then becomes available for others to read. They can then respond to the article, showing their opinion and expertise. This in turn will stimulate others to respond. In this way, a question or an opinion can create a lively and lengthy discussion.


REFERENCES
1. GREENLAW, R. and HEPP, E. (2000)
In-Line/On-Line: Fundamentals of the Internet and the World Wide Web.
New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill Pub. Co. Ltd.

2. ‘Wiki’-Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki Sept 24, 2006.

3. ‘Log’ – Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
http://en.wikipdia.org/wiki/Blog. Sept 24, 2006.

4. ‘What is Listserv?’ – A Word Definition from Webopedia Computer
Dictionary. http://www.webopedia.com/term/L/listserv.html. Sept 24, 2006.