no.stupid.answers

We’ve just returned from a wonderful day at TWS 2008, a hi tech conference that took place in Tel Aviv, Israel. Ten Web 2.0 start ups were chosen from hundreds to present their pitches to the diverse audience, including yours truly (the other nine are summed up over at Mashable, CenterNetworks, Blonde2.0, and VC Cafe).

Judges included Om Malik, Guy Kawasaki, Pete Cashmore, and others.

We made a 5-minute presentation based around the ever-crucial question: Is the wrapper of Trident gum chewable?, which included handing out many many pieces of the stuff to the audience for some real, live social knowledge sharing.

The rest of the day was spent sharing the wonder and beauty that is WikiAnswers: A Q&A website that is based on the wiki format, where anyone can edit questions or answers to create - oh, sorry, there I go with the pitch again.

Here are some of the day’s highlights:

The booth: where all the magic happens.

The pitch: It’s pretty easy with such an awesome site.

This is the face of a person who has chewed too much Trident gum before doing a presentation which includes… Trident gum.

A conversation about WikiAnswers.

The name of the game.

Nothing like a bit of chocolate goo at a conference!

A big thank you to the judges of TWS 2008 for including WikiAnswers among ten of the finest start ups around!

We really should talk about your Wiki addiction. We’re here to help you, you know. We want to make it easier for you…accessing information should be a seamless process!

That’s why we, over here at Answers.com, are proud to introduce a brand new tool bar that toolbar enables you to quickly look up terms in the search box or browse the library with one click. Now you can search Answers.com and WikiAnswers directly from your browser. It’s even pimped out with a radio and weather forecasting!

Can you imagine such a delight!? An instant Wiki-fix!? Right from your browser!?

Click here to check it out now…

This is just way too cool. Check out this process, as described by The McMommy Chronicles blogger, as to how she discovered (and got addicted to) WikiAnswers:

“I found something today called WikiAnswers. I found it because someone came to my blog by googling “Kate Gosselin’s sister blog” And it got me wondering…kate gosselin has a sister and she blogs?? So when I googled it, it brought me to Wiki Answers. Holy Addictive-ness! You should see all the questions people ask about kate gosselin! If you don’t believe me, click here to see for yourself. You can even find out if Kate has ever been in jail. You CAN!” (source)

You just gotta love the inner workings of the wonderful interwebs. I wonder what McMommy is working on over at WikiAnswers right now… Let’s hope she’s having a wonderful WikiExperience!

In recent years the potential for computers and the internet as educational tools has grown tremendously. When I was an elementary school student, ‘computer class’ meant going once a week to play Lemonade Stand in a stuffy closet with a bunch of dusty Apple II’s and Commodores.

Twenty-plus years later, students in middle school and high school are not only computer savvy, but also benefit greatly from education using alternative tools on the internet.

I’ve begun a hunt for teachers who prefer alternative methods of learning to try out an idea brewing: a WikiAnswers classroom project, where a class can work on asking and answering questions on WikiAnswers in a topic they are studying for class (there are currently 3,073 categories and counting!). The teacher might want to seed the questions and have students work together to answer them, or the students might want to quiz each other; the possibilities are vast and I’d be happy to work with teachers to figure out ways to use WikiAnswers as an educational tool.

In fact, if there is a category you’d like to try with your students that doesn’t yet exist on WikiAnswers, we’d be happy to add it! Most categories have a Supervisor dedicated to growing them and protecting them from vandals, and would be happy to work with you.

Leave a comment if this idea appeals to you and your class.

xkcd is an awesome comic for awesome geeks from an awesome geek.

Let’s talk about Today’s Highlights.

It’s a daily updated feature from Answers.com that offers a spotlight, featured question, today’s birthdays, today in history and more, right from the homepage. You could say it’s like taking your daily dose of Vitamin T: ‘t’ for trivia and ‘vitamin’ because it’s good for you.

You could also take the trivia you learn and finally have something to contribute to the water cooler conversations going on right outside your cubicle. Don’t be shy; just lean over there and sing ‘happy birthday’ to Elton John, Sarah Jessica Parker and Aretha Franklin or mention that today, in 1328, Robert the Bruce became king of the not-yet-independent Scotland.

Now let’s talk specifically about today’s highlight.

First of all, I wrote the Spotlight, so I can’t see a reason why you wouldn’t fall madly in love with it right when you start reading.

Secondly, it covers the topic of wikis, which we discuss here a lot (being WikiAnswers gurus and all). I’ll be honest, when I first toyed around with the whole wiki thing, I was confused and a little skeptical; after all, why should I write something if it can be edited by anyone later on?

But once I got into it, it made a lot of sense. I know a little bit about a topic, Timmy knows a little something more, Samantha adds some personal experience… Collaboration is for the greater good, and like the Spider-man movies have taught me, the greater good is worth fighting for.

Thank you Answers.com Editorial Team, for serving fresh Today’s Highlights every single day; thank you Ward Cunningham, for developing wiki technology; thank you WikiAnswers, for having the courage to fight the good fight.