I still think it's way to early to judge the Wikipedia in the long haul.
Remember the same HOPE that MANY people had four or five years ago about the
Open Directory Project to make it the greatest directory every created. Well,
it's 2005 and the ODP is growing old (putting it mildly) very quickly. These
days it's a way to get free content into a search engine since you can
download the material for free, brand it as your own, and place ads on it
(aka spam). That's just one issue. Heck, just getting useful info into the
ODP is very difficult. Will the same lack of interest eventually hit the
WikiPedia.
Also, which version of Wikipedia are you finding content from? Just like ODP
anyone can download and rebrand the info. Over time, we'll see more and more
versions of Wikipedia, all updated at different times. Are people always
looking at the most current version?
Next, sure popular topics are checked and reviewed often but what about
entries on less popular topics (aka the long tail)? Are they checked and
verified as often?
I once added material to Wikipedia (brand new stats from an official source)
and they were removed. An editor didn't like them and I didn't have the time
to protest the change. Another time I added some facts (I verified them from
a very well-known ref book) and they were also removed. Why? They couldn't
be verified with Google.
Finally, this quote from Red Herring:
http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=10909&hed=Wiki+wars
"Members of the Wikipedia community have proposed several fixes. Wikipedia’s
Mr. Wales has said that next year he will begin using editors to review the
web site’s content for accuracy and allow users to rate contributions to the
encyclopedia for their quality. “It’s complex because it’s a social
community, and feelings can be hurt,” said Mr. Wales, but he added that the
change will be critical when Wikipedia content is put on more permanent
media, such as CD-ROM disks."
You've got to wonder how hurt some feelings would get and if this would slow
the growth of the volunteer project..
cheers,
gary
Quoting Jacqueline Henry <jhenry@GANANDA.ORG>:
> I re-read my posting after I clicked the "send" button. I should
> clarify this part: "Still, social computing is a phenom that we can't
> stop - so our best hope is..." I certainly don't think that social
> computer should be stopped. I think it is an amazing evolution of the
> internet, full of much promise. For many of us, our school policies are
> set up to block social computing - completely ignoring the educational
> potential. But I DO think we need to be constantly educating our
> students about how to be safe in this environment. And how can we do
> that if we neve allow blogs and wikis into our classroom so that we can
> model how to be savvy "information consumers"?
>
> Jacquie
>
> "The Librarian, whose job is to heal ignorance, to keep life safe for
> poetry and to put knowledge smack dab in the middle of the American
> way."
>
> From The Philadelphia Inquirer, 9-20-03
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Jacquie Henry, MLS
> Ruben A. Cirillo High School (GHS)
> Gananda Central School District
> 3195 Wiedrick Road
> P.O. Box 609
> Macedon, NY 14502
> 315-986-3521 x 3144
> jhenry@gananda.org
> http://www.gananda.org/library/mshslibrary/indexgcl.htm
>
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--
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Librarian
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Gary Price Library Research and Internet Consulting
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