Essay 1

Compare and contrast the works of Ward Cunningham and David Winer.
What has been their contribution to development of online communities?

Howard Cunningham and David Winer have both made significant contributions to the development of online communities. Their development of language, patterns and protocols led to the development of wikis, blogs and podcasting which are essential tools for developing successful online communities.

Howard “Ward” Cunningham is a pioneer in the development of online communities because he developed the first Wiki. He started programming the software WikiWikiWeb in 1994 and installed it onto his company website, c2.com, in 1995. The software was originally developed so that developers could collaborate, update and make changes, therefore creating an online community. “My specific purpose for the first wiki was to create an environment where we might link together each other's experience to discover the pattern language of programming.” (Veneers, 2003, pg 1).

A wiki “is a website that allows multiple users to create, modify and organize web page content in a collaborative manner” (Governors State University, 2009). Wikis have become popular with online communities because they can be edited, modified and added to by anyone who has access to it. Cunningham named the software wiki after the Hawaiian word wiki-wiki, meaning quick.

Cunningham also “pioneered programming simplicity” (Cunningham, 1996-2009, pg 1) by contributing to the development of object-orientated programming, pattern languages, CRC (Class Responsibility Collaboration cards), Episodes Pattern Language and Extreme Programming.

David (Dave) Winer has made many contributions to the development of online communities. He “pioneered the development of weblogs, syndication (RSS), podcasting, outlining, and web content management software” (Winer, 2007) all of which are the basis of successful online communities. Winer created MetaWeblog API, “an application programming interface... that enables weblog entries to be written, edited and deleted using web services.” (Wikipedia, MetaWeblog, 2009).

A blog, short for web log, is an online journal usually maintained by an individual in reverse chronological order. Most blogs contain text, images, podcasts, and links to other blogs and web sites. “Since all blogs are on the internet by definition, they may be seen as interconnected and socially networked, through blogrolls [and] comments...” (wikipedia, Blog, 2009).

Winer began Userland Software in 1988, a company which sells Web content management and blogging software packages and services. Winer collaborated with Microsoft and developed the XML-RPC protocol. This led to the creation of SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) in 1998, “to connect all types of computing appliances to each other and to the Internet” (ecommerce, 2009).

Winer developed the Outline Processor Markup Language OPML in 2000, an XML format for outlines, a hierarchical, ordered list of items known as blogrolls. Winer also contributed to the development of podcasting. His company, “UserLand was the first to add an "enclosure" tag...so that bloggers could easily link to an audio file” or podcast (Wikipedia, Dave Winer, 2009).

According to his Curriculum Vitae, Winer has won numerous honours and awards including the "Top Ten Technology Innovators" in 2002 by InfoWorld, an online media and events business. (Winer, 2004).

Both Howard Cunningham and David Winer have made significant contributions to the development of social networking and online communities. Their development of language, patterns and protocols led to the development of wikis, blogs and podcasting which are now used by individuals, businesses, politicians, educators and special interest groups for social networking and the building of online communities.

References

Cunningham, H. (1996-2009). Ward Says, Don’t Try This at Home: A Weblog by Ward Cunningham. Retrieved 6 September 2009 from Artima Weblogs: http://www.artima.com/weblogs/index.jsp?blogger=ward

Governors State University. (2009). eLearning Glossary. Retrieved 6 September 2009: http://www.govst.edu/elearning/default.aspx?id=12984

Veneers, B., 2003. Exploring with Wiki: A Conversation with Ward Cunningham by Bill Veneers, Part 1. Retrieved 6 September 2009 from Artima Developer: http://www.artima.com/intv/wiki.html

Wikipedia, Blog. (2009). Blog. Retrieved 6 September 2009 from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog

Wikipedia, Dave Winer. (2009). Dave Winer. Retrieved 6 September 2009 from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Winer

Wikipedia, MetaWeblog. (2009). MetaWeblog. Retrieved 6 September 2009 from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MetaWeblog

Winer, D. (2004). Dave Winer’s Personal Website: Curriculum Vitae. Retrieved 6 September 2009 from scripting.com: http://dave.scripting.com/cv

Winer, D (2007). Dave Winer Bio. Retrieved 6 September 2009 from scripting.com: http://www.scripting.com/stories/2007/02/21/daveWinerBio.html

Winer, D. (2009). David Winer. Retrieved 6 September 2009 from ecommerce: http://ecommerce.hostip.info/pages/1086/Winer-David.html