Title: Wikipedia
Course: Advanced Composition for the Digital Age SP14 > Section: Unit 3: Search Engines vs. Electronic Databases

What's the deal with Wikipedia?

Wikipedia.m4v
From The Office: Season 3, Episode 19: "The Negotiation"

While it's true that anyone can create an account and add/edit information, it's really not quite as easy to post false information as it sounds (this is called Vandalism). There are thousands of volunteers around the world who monitor pages in which they haven an interest and can revert changes, lock pages, request documentation, etc. Most Wikipedia pages have discussion threads going on in the background where people argue about the validity of the information posted. Many times it's a more rigorous process to get new information included than in another source.

You've probably had teachers that told you not to use Wikipedia because it can't be trusted. You may have had teachers tell you that it's no big deal. Here are the facts regarding Wikipedia:

1. Information found on Wikipedia is just as (if not more) reliable than other Encyclopedias (Encarta, Britannica). In the past, Encyclopedias were the only way to find documented and relevant information on all kinds of general knowledge topics. They have an interest in keeping the myth of their superiority alive.

2. Experts in the field actually think quite highly of the information there.

3. While you may have teachers that won't let you use it, and you may not want to use it as a source yourself, you can certainly look at the references on the bottom of the page. Those are most likely primary source documents that you'll want to check out when doing internet research.

See more about the value of having an encyclopedia that the world can access and edit from the man who started it: