Double Journal Entry #8

a. What is Wikipedia? 

 "Wikipedia is a multilingual, Web-based encyclopedia project, operated by the Wikimedia Foundation, a nonprofit organization" (Cohen, 2009).

b. How would you answer the question posed in this piece “How reliable can a source be when anyone can edit it?”?

A source could be very reliable when anyone can edit it, only if the person or persons editing the

            information have some type of knowledge, a degree, in the subject matter they are discussing. Allowing anyone to edit information allows for plenty of proof reading, people can read over and edit information on Wikipedia based on their knowledge and possibly help to increase validity of the information. However, when anyone can edit information you do run the risk of false information being added to the page.

c. Who do the creators of Wikipedia place their trust in when it comes to weeding out misinformation? 

The creators of Wikipedia place their trust in the "wisdom of crowds." They feel that having many people view their site will help weed out errors and vandalism quickly.

d. Why did founder Larry Sanger leave Wikipedia? 

"Mr. Sanger left Wikipedia, believing that it should give more authority to experts; he has since created

            another site, Citizendium that does just that" (Cohen, 2009).

e. What would abuse or vandalism look like on a Wikipedia page? 

Abuse or vandalism on a Wikipedia page would look pretty normal at first glance. One would need to look through all the text on a Wikipedia page to see if there is misinformation on the page. People can write any false information such as quotes, foul language, or even through pictures.

f. What do the statistics quoted in the third paragraph of this piece reveal? 

The statistic reveal that there are about 8 million Wikipedia articles and any number of those articles could contain false information. With the lack of employees, who I am sure do not know the 280 languages that Wikipedia articles have, means that there are not enough people with the ability to determine if the information on Wikipedia is valid.

g. Why do you think Wikipedia is so successful? 

Wikipedia is so successful, because Wikipedia is so accessible. For most people they can browse through the internet faster than they can flip through an encyclopedia. Wikipedia also provides a large amounts of information on one topic. Wikipedia is easy to use and simple that is why Wikipedia is successful.

h. Why might Wikipedia’s creators not want to accept advertising? 

Wikipedia is already controversial. Wikipedia is under a lot of speculation as to the truthfulness that the site provides, so I do not think the creators want to muddy the waters by having advertisements on their site. Because if Wikipedia allows for advertisements the advertising companies might request the ability to edit certain information about themselves to appear better. If Wikipedia allows advertising they run the risk of being scrutinized even more about the information these companies might be providing.

i. How does Wikiscanner help increase the reliability of Wikipedia entries

Wikiscanner allows "...IP address of anonymous editors of the site to be easily checked" (Cohen, 2009).

            This prevents government officials and businesses from editing Wikipedia entries for their benefit.

Cohen, N. (2009, February 06). Wikipedia. The New York Times On the Web . Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/featured_articles/20090206friday.html