homework #5 the charms of wikipedia

Wikipedia has been around for as long as I can remember. I do not use it for educational school research purposes, due to its inaccuracy, but rather for my own personal knowledge on a subject . Nicholas Baker points out many negative and positive aspects of using/editing wikipedia, in his article Charms of Wikipedia. The negative aspect is that anyone can enter the site and edit any articles with invalid information. The positive aspect is that one can enter and discuss topics of their interest and share useful information that others can build on. It is a place where editors can formulate their knowledge to hopefully become a reliable source to others. Because of its vandalism, it reminds us that wikipedia is not a commercial product. It gives one the satisfaction of “fame” so to speak, because people spend hours days and decades editing and publishing their information on Wikipedia. Others view your information and, if it is a notable, can use it as a reliable source.