Week 6 with MummaJules

This week we have been introduced to 'wikipedia' and encouraged to acknowledge it, not as an academic source, but as background information that could possibly inspire us with a topic for our up-coming essay. In class we have been made aware of the good, bad and ugly of wikipedia but for our blog this week we have been asked to have a look at some articles, answer some questions and share them with you, the reader.

I live on the Gold Coast Australia and have grown up surfing with my family. I then married a surfer and so our family spent many school holidays and weekends surfing along the east coast of Australia so I chose for my first topic 'Surfing' and this was the link that I followed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surf_culture

It surprised me how much information was on this site. It took me from simple definitions, to the history of surfing and associated themes of surfing. There are articles explaining how swell is generated, pressure systems and how they affect the swell, topography of the seabed, contours of reef and sand banks and even forcasting. Other topics include surf fashion, music, literature, films, jargon and more. There were big lists of films, documentaries, tv series, commercials, and surf music was even broken down into categories of rock, pop, and instrumental. Events and Festivals come under another subheading, as does Surfing Organisations. Branching out from there was another subheading called "spin-offs" This talks about board sports, branding and multimedia. Each of these topics include many, many links to all kinds of things to do with the surfing culture.

Way more information than I was looking for, but the article appears to be accurate and covers most of the basic facts that I need to understand the topic. I consider that the article follows guidelines for useful articles? The article speaks about some of the not so glamorous sides of surfing by sharing information about territorialism and gangs expressed between local and non-local groups. I have experienced this myself and know it to be true so I would suggest that the article is fair and does not show a bias towards a particular side. Interestingly, I have been unable to find a site that will give any instruction on "How to Surf" which is what I really wanted to find. If you can find one, let me know.

Take a break, go have a coffee or better still a big drink of water and come back. I'll be back with another topic shortly.


Okay I am back with another article to look at and consider. For a number of years when my children were younger I was a designer and manufacturer of swimwear. I specialised in the competive field and provided custom designs for swimm clubs and surf clubs. In addition to this I had a retail store and produced fashion swimwear. I thought that I would check out this article and see what it had to say.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fashion_design

Again the information I felt was quite helpful. It including a table of definitions and terms related to the industry, so if I had no prior knowledge I would certainly gain some understanding of the different aspects of fashion and and it accurately describes the uniqueness of each job: for example, a designer may conceptualize the design but have no experience in any other part of the process of manufacturing. The article not only describes design and the types of fashion from a world wide point of view, it also informs the reader of some of the business side of fashion. From my own experience the article appears to be both factual and useful for someone wanting to research the topic.

Until next time ...