Halo, I'm Jeff, my Chinese name is Lo Chun Kit and my user name is jeff_lo.
I'm IS Year 3 student.

My xanga: www.xanga.com/jeff_evo6
My MSN: lokit1008@hotmail.com
Linkage: Ice Wong
Name: Lo Chun Kit, Jeff SID: 50694972
Technology Wikipedia is one of the famous acknowledge search engine, it can help business to share information such as some professional issues. Many language versions of Wikipedia are free content, it includes 253 languages and 8.2 million articles approximately, so it can help global organizations to share acknowledge in different languages. Wikipedia's articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world and the vast majority of them can be edited by anyone who can access to the Internet, if you join to Wikipedia as a member, you can edit or modify the current issues, so you can provide the updated information to Wikipedia in any time, any where that you like. It can make Wikipedia’s information keep it update to everyone and every day hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world make tens of thousands of edits and create thousands of new articles to enhance the knowledge held by the Wikipedia encyclopedia Technology function Wikipedia is open sources that provide acknowledge to public, just like an encyclopaedia, it can provide a lot of information to us. When you want to search some information in encyclopaedia, you can just simply type in the key word and then search it. Acknowledge of Wikipedia is provided by the public, simply said that it can provide by you and me. The main feature is you can provide your information to Wikipedia, you can edit or modify the exist issue, Wikipedia is a brag about freedom to all public. When you see a vocabulary that has a red hyperlink, it means that you can edit this vocabulary. Wikipedia is different from the others, as mention before, the user can edit or modify the information on the Wikipedia, however, the other online encyclopaedia is just like a search engine, the user can only just search the key word that you enter, you can not edit or modify the information. In addition, when the user can edit or modify the information in the Wikipedia, it can be provide update information to the other users. So, Wikipedia is different from the old online encycloaedia that just can only the information but can not edit or modify it. Simply use the search function in Wikipedia and it will show the existing information in Wikipedia first, and then it also provides an extra link that is related to the article. (The red circle) Virtual impact Because of Wikipedia is an online encycloaedia, it has a significant different from the paper based encycloaedia. Organization can search the information or article immediately if they can access the internet, it makes organization to save more time in research information, and user now may not need to go to library to search information. Also, if the organization can save the time, it can help the organization to save more money because time is money to almost all of the organization. It also can save more man-power in the organization because user can search almost all you want in Wikipedia. In addition, Wikipedia can provide more reference information that you search, user can compare different information and have a wider view in one fact. Also, the user can compare different related information in short time especially the research staff or student. Moreover, because of Wikipedia is a virtual based tool, it can save more space for organization, it means that in previous time, we need to have more space to store the paper based information or article, now users can just simply save their information, data or article into computer. Furthermore, user can edit or modify the existing article, also user can add a new article into Wikipedia so it can provide update information to public. For example, in medicine industry, doctors also release their update medical research to public or issued in the periodic medical magazine. However, it may need some time to announce the public especially the periodic medical magazine. So if the doctor can upload their update medical research into Wikipedia, the public can know it immediately and it can provide the update information to public. In Wikipedia, it has a portal call Community Portal, it is a place to find out what's happening on Wikipedia. Learn what tasks need to be done, what groups there are to join, and get or post news about recent events or current activities taking place on Wikipedia. In the Community Portal, user can find a discussion forum call Village pump, it is used to discuss the technical issues, policies, and operations of Wikipedia, and is divided into six village pump sections. User can base on their needs or preference to choose the suitable forum to post or discuss the article. In addition, sometimes user may not search the information in Wikipedia, so user can leave a question into Wikipedia reference desk, it works like a library reference desk and user can leave questions on the reference desk and Wikipedia volunteers work to help you find the information you need. Wikipedia have a featured content represents the best of what Wikipedia has to offer. These are the articles, pictures, and other contributions that showcase the polished result of the collaborative efforts that drive Wikipedia. All featured content have a thorough review process to ensure that it meets the highest standards and can serve as an example of our end goals. A small bronze star in the top right corner of a page indicates that the content is featured. This page gives links to all of Wikipedia's featured content and showcases one randomly selected example of each type of content. User can view another random content selection. Demonstration of actual use Wikipedia is simply used by anyone that can access the internet, if you want to search information from Wikipedia, end user just simply enter the key word and the search it, just like the existing search engine or online encyloaedia. The different between Wikipedia and the existing search engine it that Wikipedia post that existing information on the Wikipedia first, then it will also post the related website or reference website to the end user for their reference. If you don’t want to search the information, you can use Wikipedia's Contents pages, this page can list out all the information or article that in the Wikipedia and categorized by topic or glossaries. Wikipedia have a well categorized system, for example, it categorized the article by timelines that means articles are organized by chronologically. For instance, user can search article by using list of timelines, list of centuries, and list of historical anniversaries. If the user wants to modify the existing article, it just simply clicks the “edit”, user can edit the article and the edited article will update by the user. So it can enable organization have a less mass allow faster change and adaptation to changing conditions because when one of the organization want to search some information, Wikipedia’s article may updated by any volunteer at anytime, anyplace, so the other user can view the update information as soon as possible. In certain extend, Wikipedia can achieve some of the virtual organization benefits, for example, Wikipedia required little physical space, user just need a computer which can access the internet. In addition, Wikipedia required a lower cost because all of the articles are written by volunteer, so it can save more cost on hiring researching staff. Also, Wikipedia required less mass allows faster change and adaptation to changing conditions. As mention before, Wikipedia is always updated by anyone at anytime and anyplace and it can distributed the intelligence to everyone at anyplace. Furthermore, Wikipedia can help organization to advertise the company, it is because when companies produce a famous product such as iPod and has a good ranking rotted by the public user, and then Wikipedia will put the article into “Featured article”, so it can helps the company to promote their product in a free cost in Wikipedia. Moreover, Wikipedia states goals explicitly and search for satisfiers to meet them. Their project made by different people around the world and makes it readily available online. In fact, Wikipedia has some virtual organization components such as user trust based on the objective information, it is because in Wikipedia, it has a different point of view on one fact, and user can criticized which information is suitable for them. Also, user may choose Wikipedia because it can have best offering at the time if user has a computer can access the internet. Assessment and Conclusion In fact, Wikipedia can be a good virtual organization because it can have some virtual benefits, for instance, Wikipedia required a little physical space, it may be require a big server to store a huge data but may not be required a large physical space. Wikipedia operate at a lower cost because almost all of the information or article are written by people around the world, in other words, volunteers contribute to Wikipedia. The main benefit of Wikipedia is allow faster change and adaptation to changing conditions, because people can write it whatever they want, so it can distributed the intelligence at anytime, anyplace. So it is a possible and a good idea of Wikipedia to being a virtual organization because is allow people working in free working place and Wikipedia can provide different language to different countries. Moreover, Wikipedia can achieve the five technology capabilities, they are anyplace capability through tele-communication networks, user just simply connect the network to browse Wikipedia; anytime capability through databases, user can search the information in Wikipedia’s database; organizational intelligence through the organization memory and intelligent tools; monitoring of events at the source and virtual reality through multi media. Wikepedai’s technology can contribute coordination, communication, information and intelligence. For coordination, it allows the multiple players within the network to synchronize their behaviors. For communication, it can enable user to exchange information in Wikipedia. For information, it can enable the virtual organization to collect, store and apply information. For intelligence, it can enable virtual organization members to act smarter than they could because Wikipedia has a village pump in particular aspect with answers generated from interaction with other organization members, it just likes a discussion forum. Some people may concern that the accurate of Wikipedia information, if the user writes a wrong article on Wikipedia, the other user may correct it immediately and make the article to be more accurate. Also, Wikipedia's software, known as MediaWiki, is carefully designed to allow easy reversal of editorial mistakes. Wikipedia has advantages over traditional paper encyclopedias. Wikipedia has a very low "publishing" cost for adding or expanding entries and a low environmental impact, since it need never be printed. Also, Wikipedia has wikilinks instead of in-line explanations and it incorporates overview summaries (article introductions) with the extensive detail of a full article. Additionally, the editorial cycle is short. A paper encyclopedia stays the same until the next edition, whereas writers update Wikipedia at every instant, around the clock, ensuring that it stays towards to the most recent events and scholarship. The major disadvantage of Wikipedia is just an information sharing platform, it is not an encycloaedia, so it is not a dictionary that means that user can’t create an entry merely to define a term but there has an exception to this rule is for articles about the cultural meanings of individual numbers. However, in conclude, Wekipedia is a good virtual organization because Wikipedia is always updating so it is available to adapt the changes quickly. Additionally, Wikipedia operate at a lower cost and required a little physical space. Wikipedia is open to a large contributor base, drawing a large number of editors from diverse backgrounds. This allows Wikipedia to significantly reduce regional and cultural bias found in many other publications, and makes it very difficult for any group to censor and impose bias. Moreover, Wikipedia is fit the virtual organization criteria because almost the entire article on Wikipedia is outsourcing to the other people, its transfer the job to other people, that’s means a lot of volunteers are willing to write an article to Wikipedia. In conclude, I think user can use the Wikpedia as a first choice references, it is because wherever user see highlighted text like this, it means there is a link to some relevant article or Wikipedia page with further in-depth information elsewhere if you need it. When user want to be having an extra reference, Wikipedia can help, however, Wikipedia is not an encycloaedia, so if you want to have further in-depth information in a particular aspect, it is suggest reading an online encycloaedia. In the existing search engine or online encycloaedia, Wikipedia is different to them because it has a famous feature, user can edit the article and make Wikipedia always updated. Compare with a paper based encycloaedia, Wikipedia has a least information, since a paper encyclopedia stays the same until the next edition, so some information may be outdated and it may mislead the reader.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:About http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Community_Portal