Wikipedia creates an atmosphere where information can be categorize, created, verified and edited by infinite numbers of people around the world. Weather Wikipedia is reliable or not, it has an immense amount of information which is available to users with speed and convenience. Currently having 3,437,445 articles it is one of the largest sources of information available to an individual. It is also extremely fast growing, “on 12 august 2008 wikipedia reached 2,500,000; on 20 march 2009 there were 2,800,000 articles” (Dalby 50).
These articles are constantly being revised and updated by the Wikipedia community, and from the date of creation the article becomes more detailed and accurate by day. Also, many different points of views are reflected due to the fact that anyone can write on the site anonymously. This ranges from different political views, cultures and religions. It is a true reflection on the thoughts of the people. Not only the so called “experts” or professors, but anyone who has an interest in expressing their thoughts.
According to Dalby there were three aspects which made up the invention of Wikipedia. First is the “survey of knowledge”, which simply means a complete circle of knowledge. This can also be found in encyclopedias which have no single topic they cover, but instead a vast number of topics which are organized by alphabetical order. Wikipedia has no limit on the number of topics that can be covered, and instead of a table of contents it uses the power of search engines to make information convenient and organized. The second part was the dictionary. A dictionary encompasses all the words that make up our language, with definitions, and as the definitions begin to include facts and ideas then it becomes more of an encyclopedia. The last is the sourcebook, which is used to track information and to reference more information. Wikipedia has put these three together, from defining terms to expanding on them, relating them to ideas and linking those ideas with more related ideas. Also, sourcing where the information has come from to find primary, more accurate sources if necessary.
There is a large amount of data and information available on Wikipedia, but the biggest concern is the accuracy of the data and the meaning behind it. Is this actual intelligence or simply large amounts of data. “These sites, he continued, were like communal gardens of data, with some participants doing ‘a lot of heavy planting’ while others preferred to ‘pull a weed here and there’ (51). As Wikipedia grows, the more useful of a resource it will become with more accurate information. Theoretically if the amount of users keeps growing the information should have more meaning and value. This is a perfect example of web 2.0, which is the fact that the world wide web is now not only becoming a place to receive information, but also to contribute. Simply using the web affects how the web interacts with everyone else. Clicking links and visiting pages increase their popularity, which increases the chances of coming up on search engines which then in turn bring in more visitors. Websites such as social networks tie people together in a virtual world that never existed before. Your actual physical location on the planet is slowly loosing importance. Everything is effected by the internet, from the way we shop, go to school, interact with each other and make money. So should it also effect what we consider valid information, and who we trust to give it to us? Do we trust the ‘experts’ who are renounced professors and authors and write books and textbooks? Or do we trust the collaboration of the everyday person’s thoughts and ideas from all over the world. By including the views of every person, every culture, every individual situation, we can move closer to what we can consider ‘accurate’, ‘trustworthy’ and essentially the ‘truth’.
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