Talk:Zing Technologies

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Articles for deletion This article was nominated for deletion on 22 February 2006. The result of the discussion was no consensus.

[edit] Notable / Verifiable

Googling is not a fair test for Zing as it is used by people who would never mention it on a website and people use zing as participants who don't own their own system. So it has many more than 5000 users, and has been available in one form or another since the early 1990s.

Here's a selection of links to assist others online research.

links in to wikipedia

academic - papers and conferences

commercial - faciltators, trainers and resellers

media - mentioned in articles

education

  • see zing in schools in main article.

publications

  • Whymark, G. (Ed.) Transformational tools for 21st century minds . Sydney : Knowledge Creation Press, pp. 87-91. ISBN 1876674563
  • Willcox, J; Zuber-Skerritt, O. Using the Zing team learning system (TLS) as an electronic method for the Nominal Group Technique (NGT). Journal v.8 no.1 Apr 2003: 61-75

[edit] Advertisement

First of all, the article should be about the company OR the software. It completely mixes both up without any boundaries at all. (Imho there should be "AnyZing", "ZingThing" and "Zing Technologies".) Secondly, lots of the "info" included here reads like an advertisement.

  • The "disadvantages"-part should be incorporated in the main article, not moved to the bottom where it is easily overread.
- done. CatS
  • "Useful for a range of learning and meeting activities, Zing can be used by children or adults in groups as small as four or as large as four hundred. It has broad application for education, knowledge management, brainstorming, meetings, planning and reporting activities." This could also be said about pen+paper or a megaphone. It doesn't contribute at all to the article but rather misleads.
- I have reworded this section, but I don't think this is a useful criticism - almost all educational technology is superfluous to some extent, it can only ever support and facilitate learning. To say that pen+paper would suffice is self-evident, however we use technology for ease and efficiency. CatS
I just wanted to illustrate that the description is way out of proportion while at the same time, unprecise. There'd be a lot more useful information, if we wrote whether it's a voice conferencing tool, or a project management system and so on.--Johnnyw 01:51, 4 January 2006 (UTC)
  • "promotes team formation for faster knowledge creation" source? proof? if there is none, then it intended to do so.
- I have reworded it, and will attempt to find the research that suggested team formation was enhanced by the use of Zing. CatS
Please be sure not to "find the research that suggested team formation was enhanced" but to find WHATEVER research regarding that matter if you want to include it. Since that's the whole point of NPOV... ;) --Johnnyw 01:51, 4 January 2006 (UTC)
- see this article: http://creative.canberra.edu.au/digital/docs/edmedia2004.pdf - --59.167.66.5 07:08, 6 March 2006 (UTC)
  • "The school is enthusiastic about the integration of technology into mainstream subject areas and was keen to explore the use of computer-based technology for teaching civics and citizenship education. Using their Zing Team Learning System was a natural choice." Why was it "natural" choice? Who says so? Wikipedia certainly doesn't since it's an encyclopedia, merely stating facts and citing opinions. This is obviously a personal opionion.
- reworded. CatS
  • There are obviously some other faux-pas in the article.
- please point them out. CatS
Please, see below.--Johnnyw 01:51, 4 January 2006 (UTC)
  • Please modify it keeping our NPOV guidelines in mind.
- I will read over the guidelines and see what else needs to be changed. CatS

Thanks.. --Johnnyw 14:11, 31 December 2005 (UTC) First of all, sorry, I hope you don't feel set back by me, I try to be constructive and to get a bit more to the point explaining the "faux-pas" I meant. One of the main reasons why it read like an advertisement was, that it sounded and was almost structered like a web page of a company. Specifically:

  • the sub sections should be explained. For example, "Zing Research". Who are they? Employees? Independent researchers?
- They are independant researchers.
  • The same with the other sections, I think they need to be explained and titled properly. (Anyzing, Zingthin don't have their own section, they should get a "Products" header.)
- now under 'Versions' and they could do with fleshing out.
  • The detailed information regarding the software should be included in the "Products" sub section.
- it would seem a lot of 'detail' has been edited out of this article.
  • Also, the first sentence should clearly say, that it's an article about a company.
- it currently does. It did in the past.
  • Adding categories that clarify that point should be handy. Also, the sentence "Zing software is now used throughout the world in Education, Community, Business and Government" is misleading in my opinion, since it leads to the conclusion, that is a major player next to SAP or the like. And still if it is so, there should to be a source given to verify that claim or information substantiating it if it's not obvious or a known fact. The UPS article for example has an infobox, categories and such which might help.
- this has been edited to say Australasia, North America and Europe - this can easily be substantiated

Netherlands

http://www.digiuni.nl/digiuni/download/temp/EindrapportInteractievewerkvormenvoordraadlozeleeromgevingen.pdf http://vop.itbe.utwente.nl/issues/20050518/450/nl.html

United Kingdom

http://www.e-learningcentre.co.uk/eclipse/vendors/meeting.htm

United States

http://www.futureu.com/technology/zing/software.html

  • And I'm really not too sure about the user testimonies... can you give me the link where you got "i think that zing is the coolest ever! it is a fantastic way to communicate and a great way to have a class. very fun! top work!" from? It doesn't appear to be listed.
- Doesn't appear to be in the article anymore - but the link where it comes from is here: http://www.dutchclass.net/archief/2005/okt01zing.html

I can't think of any other page regarding any company that includes testimonies on products.. I'll see if I can find anything in the Wikipedia guidelines... Thanks again for your patience. --Johnnyw 01:51, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Zing in schools

I'd like to discuss the deletion and reversion of the Zing in Schools section. I put information together based on googling for zing references and copied the relevant paragraphs from the pages. Later I thought it might perhaps be bordering on copyright infringement so decided to remove it. I think it's a bit of a grey area.

So, rather than just deleting it again, I wonder what others think? - --CatS 03:40, 30 September 2005 (UTC)