I am a terrible proof reader. I don't see my typos especially dropped words or words spelled correctly but the wrong word. Actually some of my typos are pretty funny ...
Shortly after I published my wiki gardening post, Howard Rheingold added it to the syllabus of the social media classroom. Except whoops -- I made a typo in the title instead of "Secret Life of A Wiki Gardener" my original title was 'Secret Life of A Wiki Gardner." I didn't notice it - but rather humorous that I inserted the name of a well respected educational researcher. I quickly fixed the typo.
So, Howard Rheingold is my proof reader. No, the world is my proof reader. I feel no shame, I appreciate it.
Is spelling so 1994?
Back in 1995, I had a web 1.0 site that was like a blog. I posted a new page every day describing a new web site by an arts nonprofit or tool. The site was called Spider School. I had a special section called the "Typo Police" where I invited my readers to edit my copy. If they spotted a typo, they got a police badge and I corrected the typo. Copy editors and English teachers from all over the web felt compelled to look for my typos. Even HTML coders came by and spotted typos in my code!
Today, the folks at GooseGrade introduced me to their new tool:
The service is called gooseGrade. gooseGrade changes the way in which writers and readers can interact with each other. Once integrated into a blog with a single line of javascript, readers will be able to suggest corrections to authors – grammar, spelling, factual, and more without leaving the page
Let's say your favorite political blog decides to integrate gooseGrade into their blog and a reader notices a factual inaccuracy – an article says that Barack Obama was born in 1962 (he was really born in 1961). A reader can simply click the gooseGrade badge, highlight the text that needs correction, and submit that correction to the writer. The writer will receive notification of the suggestion and can choose to accept or decline the correction.
This ultimately is compiled into a "gooseGrade" (a scale of 1 to 100) for blogs/bloggers who participate.
The service doesn't force the author, nor does it penalize the author's grade in any way, to either accept or decline a user's suggestion. The author's gooseGrade is lowered only while there are "pending" suggestions the author has neither accepted or declined. Once the author has either accepted OR declined a suggestion, his or her points are given back and their grade restored. In other words, the gooseGrade is dynamic in nature and represents a "snapshot" of where the content stands right now, the author's desire to "perfect" their content, and how thoroughly the content has been "edited" by the author as of the moment.Not many bloggers have editors and gooseGrade gives them one - the public.
They asked if I would use it and why - OMG, yes. Of course, it has to be easy to use, easy to install, and easy integrate into habit.
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