Page 8 / Wednesday, April 16, 2008
GRAPHICS & STORY BY Shelley Russell Special Projects Editor
Fast facts, innovative entries and easy-to-read articles make Wikipedia a
popular site for students and professors alike. But when all is said and
done, how accurate is the content?
Quality tests conducted by experts who reviewed articles from
multiple online encyclopedias, including Encyclopedia Brittanica
and Microsoft Encarta, rated Wikipedia as an equal among its
competitors.
Time Magazine reported that while the site is vandalized
daily, repairs usually occur within minutes or hours by
the site’s wide pool of users, dedicated to protecting
the content.
Founded in 1999 by Jimmy Wales, 39, Wikipedia
has exploded with success, now boasting more than
600,000 articles in English, and more than 2 million
total articles.
The site’s free licensing agreement, allowing
content to be copied or redistributed for both
commercial and non-commercial use is a
component that enhances the popularity of
the project.
More recently, Wikipedia has been
used as a public relations tool among
institutions and organizations. While Elon
University does have a Wikipedia entry,
Dan Anderson, assistant vice president
and director of University Relations,
confirmed that University Relations is not
responsible for the content about Elon.
“I do not think that Wikipedia is
promotional in nature,” Anderson said.
“We do not use it to promote university
programs, but we do like to keep it as an
accurate source of information.”
Anderson remembers correcting Elon’s
Wikipedia entry twice during the past few
years, after he had been alerted of an error ~
on the site.
Wales spoke at a conference in July 2005,
about what he called an “unusual and chaotic”
organization structure of the site. With millions
of contributors and a standby crew of volunteer
system administrators 24 hours a day Wikipedia is
more reliable than most people think.
Wales did acknowledge the inevitable mistakes .
on the site, but he also spoke of the extensive editing
process and dialogue among anonymous users to get the
facts right and confirm information with other sources.
While most users honor the valuable source of information,
some users are disrespectful.
“The real struggle [with Wikipedia] is not between the right and
the left,” Wales said. “It is between the party of the thoughtful and the
party of the jerks.”
Wales still holds confidence in his creation, expanding the Wikimedia
Foundation to include many other free form online resources for the online
community.
WHAT PROFESSORS HAVE TO SAY
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THE GOOD
Wikipedia makes information available to everyone, and
although there are qualms with the idea of the site, Elon
professors are not completely discounting the idea.
English Professor Paula Patch values the philosophy
behind Wikipedia.
“The creation and consumption of information should be
accessible to anyone and everyone,” she said.
Dr. Jessie Moore likes the idea of Wikipedia because it
is a good resource of introductory information on a topic. In
addition. Wikipedia offers opportunities for others to review
articles.
“The site provides useful tools to let people evaluate the
page," Moore said.
In addition to the editing tools in the site, there is a
discussion tab that allows users to voice opinions. Patch has
her College Writing students engage in a project to assess the
validity of Wikipedia, as well as recognize limits to the site.
“When students take the responsibility for learning in this
way, they tend to retain the information better than when
they’re simply presented with one more rule,” Patch said.
Professors have mixed feelings about citing Wikipedia, but
most professors will not disagree with the idea that the site is
a valuable preliminary information source.
Consensus: Wikipedia is a useful resource for general
information that gives everyone access to a free online
encyclopedia, but the information should not be used without
verification from other credible sources.
THE BAD
While the site may be helpful as a first look at a topic, there
is no doubt that some major errors have been found on the site.
Wikipedia has posted articles announcing deaths of public
figures who are still very much alive, and presented false or
inaccurate information.
“The big problem with Wikipedia is the fact that anyone
can upload and edit,” communications professor David
Copeland said. “Finding who has done the writing and editinq
IS almost impossible.”
While students are often met with frustration as professors
repeat the familiar phrase; “Do not use Wikipedia for this
project,” professors have reasons for objecting to the site
At any time, any information within any entry may be
inaccurate,” English professor Paula Patch said. “This is most
professors biggest concern about Wikipedia.”
thews'?; P'’°f®ssors, have said that they use
the srte to gather information quickly about a new topic, but
artides^"^^'"^ potential bias in Wikipedia
She calls this “systematic bias,” meaning that there is
imitation in terms of information presented on the site to
SSuseS?L?^®' r Wikipedia writers
because of a personal interest in the topic at hand.
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information no entry on the site should be read in confidence that
rt IS complet^y accurate. Students should not rely on Wikipedia
as It IS often difficult to Identify the authors of each entry ’
This tab provides the
full article, as well as
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The text in blue allows
readers easy access
around the page, as
well as links to related
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Comments are listed
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criticisms of the entrj,
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Elon University
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