Wikipedia

Wikipedia has grown to become arguably the largest wiki on the internet. The online encyclopedia contains over five million articles in 250 languages. Wikipedia was designed to accompany a more formal encyclopedia in 2001, but has outlived its parent project and blossomed into an online information powerhouse.

Wiki Technology

Wiki technology allows for multiple users to add, edit, and even delete content from a single website. In a manner similar to open-source software, various editors may add articles and then make revisions as necessary to find correct common ground. The underlying principle to a wiki is that the material emerging from these multiple edits will be fundamentally correct and unbiased. Of course, there are many critics of this philosophy as well as many supporters. Both have some merit to their argument.

How Wikipedia Works

Wikipedia works much like any other wiki. Its greatest asset, as well as liability, is the number of users. As all users, both registered and unregistered, can make edits to most of the Wikipedia articles, this leads to a few problems with vandalism and editing wars.

In general, Wikipedia editors register for an account and then add articles. These articles have criteria which must be followed, including a nonbiased approach and the elimination of original research. Wikipedia is not interested in determining the objective truth on all of its subjects, but rather describing each topic objectively from all viewpoints. In fact, subjects of biographies are not allowed to edit the articles dedicated to them for fear of a non neutral position.

Once an original article has been created on Wikipedia, anyone may comment on and edit the content. While Wikipedia does not have to approve each article, they do have procedures in place to eliminate as much vandalism, biased, and incorrect articles as possible. They also maintain a watch for misused copyrighted material.

All items submitted to Wikipedia should be free of copyright violations, and will be used on the online encyclopedia under its GNU Free Documentation License. This allows for the constant revisions of other author’s work.

Criticism and Support of Wikipedia

Wikipedia has both strong supporters and adamant critics. One of the most popular arguments against the online encyclopedia is that it is not an encyclopedia at all. As all articles are written by willing participants, the information they contain is not necessarily fact checked or verified by experts.

Even the co-founder and current head, Jimmy Wales, agrees that certain subjects, which are decidedly out of the mainstream, are written and then fairly uncontested. This allows for slant and a more or less favorable depiction of the subject matter than desired. He also described Wikipedia as “a work in progress.”

Wikipedia’s popularity has grown considerably in recent years landing it Alexa’s number fifteen spot. It is heavily trafficked, and despite some controversy, remains a source of background information for many internet users.

Wikipedia is also beginning to make appearances in more cultural settings. Certain articles have been references by the United States Supreme Court and the Parliament of Canada. As this trend continues, websites and businesses referenced by the online encyclopedia, as well as knowledge sharing as a whole, will be positively affected.

About the Author