Models and Theories in Human-Computer Interaction/Braindfood Through dCog

Brainfood Through dCog

WikiBook motivates interaction that collects knowledge from a large group of individuals. This connects directly to our drive for social interaction as we are social beings. It also forwards our informavore nature as we are constantly hunting, gathering, and storing more information.

The collaborative medium of WikiBook allows individuals access to a much greater store of information than he or she would be able to gather alone. If we look at it in terms of distributed cognition this process agrees with the idea that this system of actors (WikiBook users) can work collaboratively to reach a higher state of cognition. In other words, the cognition is being shared between all of the actors (Wikibook users) and the artifacts (computers/servers) which serve as the platform of connection.

However, WikiBook deters from real time feedback and instantaneous cooperative collaboration seen in face-to-face human interactions. Face-to-face interaction has the benefit of just that, it is accompanied with facial cues which allow more information to be sent to the receiver and enhance the ability to successfully communicate ideas across connections. Also, the instantaneous nature of face-to-face interaction allows for much more rapid collaboration between two or more individuals which can foster the development of higher level ideas, WikiBook slows this collaboration down.