Reaction to "Disrupting Intellectual Property"

The connection between "Disrupting Intellectual Property: Collaboration and Resistance in Wikis" and the research I am completing with my group is relatively obvious however a little more in depth about a certain topic which is discussed within this piece. Vie and deWinter discuss the way new technologies cause problems with the supposed ownership of a specific document. They state "wikis bolster the view that no individual can "own" ideas-there is no solitary author." While wikis may bolster this view it also raises many questions about who is the creator and owner of work published on the Internet which different people can change and manipulate. My project concerns copyright and the protection of ideas created by an author. I believe that there is more to the protection of intellectual property. While it is good to collaborate on works so they are more truthful and correct I also believe producing your personal writing and having your personnel tone, flow, style, ideas, beliefs, and values be reflected in your writing should be protected to an extent. I can see the need and use of collaborative writing and pooling of ideas with sites such as Wikipedia, however, I believe in some cases your original and creative ideas should be left as they first were published with your own personal style and ideas.

Something in this piece which surprised and interested me was the discussion concerning the creation of an audience for the student to write to. It is true that students view their ultimate audience as their teacher and in turn create their writing to appeal to and impress the teacher. However when creating a Wiki or adding onto an already existing Wiki the student must then tailor their writing to not only appeal to their professor but also to a much larger and more diverse audience. Also writing within and for a specific discipline is difficult to achieve when your professor is your audience and not actual people who study and are beneficiaries of information which are created by students studying gaps within the discipline.

I believe not only the authors of this piece but most authors who collaboratively write encounter problems with intellectual property and the protection of their personnel ideals and contributions to the writing. It will be interesting to see the extent to which the class and more specifically my group will be able to cope with these problems or if these problems will exist at all.