Tag Archives: Wikipedia

Wiki it. Why not?

There are constant data streams of both useful and useless information we will read and see on the internet. Along with all the information we use, there is always problems with their construction. Is this information relevant? Is the source trustworthy? Is the bias for or against what you’re looking for? One website many people use to obtain their information is “wikipedia.” Wikipedia is a website that relays information that is user based and public. Users can edit the information this is public displayed with, or without a proper source. What could possibly go wrong? In possibility, incorrect information can be relayed due to bias, or even a possibility of a person not liking what someone else had written before. Inaccurate depictions and misinformation can lead the reader in the wrong direction. Sure, a lot of the information could be true, or rather false. But wikipedia can be used in a manner that is similar to a search engine, i.e. google. Information displayed on wikipedia often times have citations that allow the reader to find the source to verify what they have read. The citations will lead the user to the source of information that allows the reader to verify the informations and they can determine the validity of what they read. In my personal opinion, wikipedia is a very powerful asset if you use it in the correct manner.

Researching in research.

Researching information leads us to new ideas. Ideas that help advance our thoughts to understanding subjects from different angles. Wikipedia has users researching various internet pages of endless subjects. The same pages are being vandalized and edited again by their creators. Wikipedia has been created by researchers for researchers, with it’s most impressive aspect being that it is non-profit. It is rather charming as Baker might have put it. Math being used to create research data has also been applied to researching cures for dieases in Tufte’s article. These large amounts of data are necessary to find little details that are invaluable as seen in Lohr’s reading about John Snow and the town’s well handle. The “Web 2.0” article shows us that all this researched data we find on the web. Which includes us and just about everything else we can think of, is evolving into a world wide web were we are the main subjects being researched.