Before the start of this class I had a relatively vague idea on what Wikipedia was and how it functioned, but I had never really looked into it all that much. I had always assumed that Wikipedia was a one of a kind site where users were allowed to edit and contribute their own thoughts and knowledge, so I was quite surprised to learn that there are many, many more wiki sites that allow users to edit and post on topics ranging from various sports to popular movies.
As for Wikipedia itself, I learned that there was much more to it then I had previously thought. For instance, I personally though that a stub had nothing to do with Wikipedia unless someone had created an article about it, but it turns out that it is actually a article that has yet to be completed. I also learned that even though Wikipedia is run by the users, it is still fairly well policed and article that have been vandalized are usually discovered and reverted quite quickly, especially if the subject is a popular one.
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| A Wikipedia editing screen |
To give us some experience on what a good Wikipedia article entails, we were given the task of finding a stub and adding to it to make it better. To begin we had to choose a stub that we were fairly confident we could edit/ improve upon. For example, Sara here chose to edit the stub on the Nageia nagi a Japanese tree species where as I chose was on grapple yarding. This is a subject that I have learned about in a few of my classes and thought that I could improve upon the very little that this topic had on it. This assignment was a very good learning experience because it showed that in order to make a good article, one has to have either extensive previous knowledge of the subject or be willing to take the time research and find supporting evidence that what they are saying is indeed correct. On the flip side of this, there are also the people that have no idea what they are talking about but they, for some reason, feel the need to write what they think they know about a subject on Wikipedia anyways. It is due to this very vast diversity of people that contribute to Wikipedia that it can be so hit and miss with the reliability of the content.
Even though Wikipedia is not the most reliable source of information, it has still become an integral part of searching for information on the web. Because the articles are usually written by people in a very informal fashion, it makes them much easier for the average person to understand. There is also the opportunity for Wikipedia to be a good starting point for a even more in depth search into a subject through the links and references that are usually included in the article.
To wrap it all up, I believe that Wikipedia has been a major contributor in the changing of how we find and share information and will continue to become a more and more valuable resource in the future.
