Wikipedia II

So I realized that my last entry about Wikipedia was pretty long. I am going to do my best to keep this one short and sweet; discussing briefly some of the trust issues associated with Wikipedia and its users. As we all ready established, most of the accuracy concerns with Wikipedia's content stem from the fact that it is mostly user generated. Dalby explains how there is no way of really knowing who is making edits or what motives they have for doing so. This also poses a problem when it comes to topics that little information is known about. In chapter 7, Dalby references an argument between two members of British Government about the age of famous painter, Titian. He mentions that the wiki article for Titian has provided several separate birthdays including some claims that the information is unknown. The article was edited and reedited quite a bit which made both of sides of the argument valid at one point or the other. It would have been pretty simple for one of those guys to go there, edit the article to favor his claim, and then show the other guy. Now think about this; two guys were having a dispute over the age of if Titian and one of them changes the Wikipedia entry to say he was born in 1490 to satisfy his claim. At the same time, someone researching the painter goes to Wikipedia for some basic knowledge and copies down the birthday into his notes. Although that information may or may not be correct, other people aside from the two disputing are constantly accessing it. This is why it is a difficult resource to trust.

Despite knowing that there is always the possibility of snagging some bum information from Wikipedia it is still one of (if not the) most trafficked reference site on the web. It's all about accessibility and Wikipedia has played that card so well. Not only is Wikipedia a given when it comes to getting any results from a search engine, but a wiki search bar has been implemented into the corner of many popular web browsers. Wikipedia is available is 262 languages with somewhere in the vicinity of 16 million articles that span across these editions. I mentioned in my last entry how in the past 3 or 4 years the people working at Wikipedia headquarters have dedicated a lot of time to preventing Wikipedia accuracy problems. They are at the point now where they feel Wikipedia is becoming a much more reliable source and are sure they can win the trust back of anyone that has been burned before.