Reading Report #4

Can WIKIPEDIA Ever Make the Grade?

Wikipedia is a highly controversial website that contains editied information on millions of topics. It is basically a free encyclopedia with articles that have been contributed and collaborated together since 2001. Larry Sanger and Jimmy Wales are the founders of Wikipedia. It has had a bad reputation among professors and teachers who mostly refuse to let students use it as a research tool. Altough many articles and information is credible, anyone can edit the information and it might have no proof of expertise. Mr. Halavais did an experiment where he got onto Wikipedia and slipped in 13 errors into various articles. He assumed his nonsense wouldn't be checked or changed but much to his dismay, even his most believable lies had been deleted thanks to the Wikipedia editors who reguraly check the recently updated entries. Mr. Halavais was impressed witht he site and the fact that they caught his mistakes. However, most people still dismiss the notion that Wikipedia is actually a credible website. The encyclopedia continues to grow and many scholars contribute articles to the collection. However, the numbers aren't what make it a sucess, it has to be the quality. An incident that was damaging to Wikipedia's reputation dealt with Mr. Seigenthaler who noticed an entry that claimed he was responsible for something he wasn't. He called Wikipedia a "flawed and irresponsible research tool". However Wikipedia is working hard to make sure that everything stays clean and that the highest traffic areas are the most revised. Up against Encyclopedia Britannica, Wikipedia stands it's ground. Many scholars have deemed Wikipedia as a good and relevant site but there will always be doubts when it can be edited by anyone. Wikipedia is fighting back strong and growing at an enormous rate. It isn't going anywhere, that is for sure.
I am a big fan of Wikipedia. I love the easiness and availability of the information on there. I can type something into google and up pops a link to Wikipedia which always seems organized and easy to read. I can almost always find what I am looking for on Wikipedia. I might trust it too much sometimes, but I would like to think that the information is valuable and true. If it is a topic that I am unsure about or don't know a lot about, then I probably wouldn't use Wikipedia to find more information. I would refer to a more credible site that has facts about what I am looking for. However, Wikipedia is set up in a user friendly manner and I like the bold headings that make it easy to search.