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== Purpose ==
:'''The purpose of this tutorial "WIKI Article" is to help explain how promoting "online collaboration" through the use of WIKIs may help reduce volunteer workload''', and build a customized online database for church volunteering and operational activities that not only can be used to share with the Westminster congregation and the Orangeville community, but with the entire World..'''This article is based on this author's observations and professional experience when using online collaboration tools such as WIKIs'''.
:This tutorial will focus on the possibilities and advantages of collaborating over the Internet with the <u>most effective tools</u>.
::*Certain '''Social Media software''' (eg. facebook, twitter) are useful for posting messages and keeping in touch with friends and events,<br />but '''lack the ability to create and collectively edit ideas and document content'''.
::*'''Document generation and editing''' (eg. word-pressing, spreadsheets, slide-shows) are mainly edited "off-line", which '''requires more work downloading and uploading files'''. Although they may be posted to web-pages, those documents are not really considered "living documents"...
Furthermore, we can been conditioned to instinctively avoid on-line collaboration during our lifetime:
::*Jotting notes with pen and pencils (WIKIs did not exist when we went to school)
::*Fear of getting caught cheating (always do your own work, never copy)
::*Negative and sometimes hostile attitudes of WIKIs among Instructors. In this rapid adjustment into the "information age", sometimes the students should be training the instructors, and leave the instructor to teach timeless concepts such as critical thinking, research techniques and team-building.
::*Corporations sometimes compete and market universal benefits of on-line collaboration. For example, free software proponents such as Richard Stallman see the term "cloud computing" nothing more than a marketing scheme. He has collaborated online with many groups of people that has generated a tremendous amount of free software that benefits society.
