Wikipedia...
...Should I, or Shouldn't I?
Wikipedia is a user friendly online encyclopedia that is created, updated, and modified, by its users. Wikipedia was first introduced on January 15th 2001 and was the idea of many of the creators of NUpedia, an online encyclopedia that was updated by highly qualified professionals and never caught on. According to Wikipedia.com the site had more than one thousand articles posted in less than a month after its creation, and in the first year alone there were more than twenty thousand articles posted.
With the growth of the postings on Wikipedia.com so to has the number of users grown. In May 2002 there were 769 Wikipedian’s (someone who has posted at least 10 times since signing on) with twenty five percent posting at least five times a month. Then in May 2006 user-ship multiplied by 270% when it hit 202,328 and had 32% of users posting at least five times a month. (Aili, McConnon) Between 2005 and 2006 the number of articles has grown from 2.2 million to 4.6 million, meaning in less than a year it more than doubled (Corcoran). With the massive growth of the online encyclopedia it is clear that they must be doing something right. People are visiting the site, becoming members, and updating, a large chunk of people post at least five times a month, and most post at least once a month.
Many professors are refusing to allow students to use Wikipedia as a source of information when it comes to doing research, even threatening to fail them or kick them out of the class. In the Article “Can Wikipedia Make the Grade” we learn of one teacher who attempted to sabotage Wikipedia, Alexander M.C. Halavais who while teaching at the State University of New York in Buffalo decided that he would go throughout Wikipedia and place several simple and more hidden errors in its pages. (Read) He put errors in the pages including: A difficult well hidden error that Frederick Douglas lived in Syracuse for four years of is life (this is something that if I came across I would not even think twice about). He also gave an Oscar to Disney’s Rescuers Down Under (An easier find). He also posted many completely obscure errors.
Expecting that falsities would remain for quite some time Halavais was shocked when in less than three hours all of his errors had been removed. This article just shows how devoted the users of Wikipedia are, with the hundreds of thousands of users it’s nearly impossible to post false information and not have it worked out within hours if not minutes. “The trap is that nothing is vetted beforehand. Mistakes, deliberate or not, can only be caught after posting. Wikipedia presumes a kind of communal sense of responsibility, a belief that, given the opportunity, most people will be honest.” (Long)
Even with the constant updates and corrections of false statements there are many people who are against the site. "The problem with an online encyclopedia created by anybody is that you have no idea whether you are reading an established person in the field or someone with an ax to grind." Michael Gorman, library services, California State University of Fresno. (Read) With these kinds of comments being spread around it will no doubt hurt the Wiki, but if they would explain how quickly the false statements are corrected, and how the website is done through collaboration not just a single person posting their opinion on information, then maybe the site would get the recognition it deserves.
Another well known error on Wikipedia was about a journalist who found himself on Wikipedia, and it was claimed that he was directly connected with the Kennedy assassinations. This information sat on the pages of Wikipedia for more than four months before being corrected, and it did damage to his career, when the information was posted on other well known research sites. (Read) So things can slip into the pages however they are very rare and when they are in there they are corrected within hours.
Simply said, even with all the people who do not believe in this organization and the attempted sabotage, the Wikimedia Foundation has pulled through. Something must be going right because thousands more are signing on the site just keeps growing not only in users but in the number of articles as well. Since the start of Wikipedia and after seeing that Wikipedia is an excellent source of information and is used by millions of people. Now and in the near future more sites are being added. Wictionary is a sister site to Wikipedia, and is a dictionary and thesaurus available in all languages and this too is created and updated by the users. Also there is the site Wiki Commons which is a free place for users to go where they can post media files, from pictures to sounds and video. For certain this site has a future, and its up to the users to continue to make the site worth while and to continue to create new sites where knowledge can be passed on.