We’ve all heard of, and likely used, Wikipedia. What Google search have you conducted lately that does not include Wikipedia entries among the results? This Tip provides background on Wikipedia, including who uses it, issues about content validity, and how it’s affecting the information landscape.
At a Glance
- Wikipedia, ”the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit
- http://www.wikipedia.org/
- Launched Jan 15, 2001
- Run by non-profit Wikipedia Foundation, supported by donations
- 250 languages
- 6 million+ articles (1.4 million in English)
- Written collaboratively by 75,000 volunteer contributors, from expert scholars to casual readers
Wikipedia’s original editing policy permitted anyone to add to start a new page or an existing page, but this left it open to criticism that it is easily vandalized, has a liberal bias, and has uneven quality because it extends editing power to people who lack subject knowledge. Wikipedia Foundation has tightened some controls, but also cautions that “Wikipedia's most dramatic weaknesses are closely associated with its greatest strengths.” For instance, Wikipedia's radical openness means that any given article may be, at any given moment, in a bad state; rapid and timely articles may be incomplete; and because of the evolving nature of wiki articles, they are actually never complete.
Wikipedia has in a few short years become ubiquitous. Anti-Wikipedia and pro-Wikipedia articles routinely appear in today’s news. After all, it is a hot topic, information’s rock star, so to speak. Another Wikipedia-like entrant that bears watching is Digital Universe, The Encyclopedia of Earth. On this site, all entries are vetted by “stewards” who are subject experts.
Wikipedia, and Wikipedia-like models, are surely here to stay, and worth paying attention to by those of us involved in information sharing.
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