The World and Wikipedia, Part 2

In reading this book, I was surprised to realize that so much research was done on a relatively new medium, Wikipedia. I found it interesting that the author was able to document a great deal that happened within individual articles and create a story that was appealing even to a novice user of Wikipedia like me. The back story to some of the editors of Wiki was fascinating, and the amount of time that they devote to it without monetary compensation was mind boggling. It was also surprising the lengths that people will go through to invent credentials for the pseudonym that they write under in order to garner respect from other volunteers. If one edits on Wiki to serve one's quest to share knowledge with others, then who cares who is writing but care more whether the information is correct in what they are writing. If someone purports to have a doctorate in whatever, do they automatically have more value because of that piece of paper, real or fake? Can knowledge or expertise be measured by a piece of paper? Do we discount knowledge unless there is education behind it? For example, if an uneducated car mechanic was to write about the operations of a car, would we not take it seriously until he gets a degree in mechanical engineering? Who really is the expert?

The positives of the medium of Wikipedia outweigh the negatives and I think that the author does a good job highlighting both. He tells readers to use it carefully and to be aware that there are people who vandalize purposefully, but through the very nature of how it is set up, it very often will be corrected and more good information is there than not. There are stories of how some articles have given more misinformation that others, ex. John Seigenthaler and  his battle to correct his biography. But all in all, Wiki allows for even the most individual tastes and interests an opportunity to have credence, whether it be some ancient Greek poet or Sept. 11th. This democratic nature is the strength of Wiki, and because of it, will continue far beyond the printing of this book. "Here, then, is the first reason why we love Wikipedia. We love it because it's a virtual nation, or rather a virtual world." (TWAW 120)  Just don't ever use it as a primary source, because the virtual world is not always trustworthy.