Wikipedia

Wikipedia Article

I can honestly say that I don’t think that I have used Wikipedia in the past at all. I know that recently my daughter was writing a research paper and was told that the use of Wikipedia was not allowed as a source for her paper. After reading a little more on the subject of Wikipedia, I understand now why she wasn’t allowed to use Wikipedia as a source. I always knew that many people could contribute to Wikipedia articles, but I never considered that people would actually “vandalize” articles for their own benefit. I guess my mind just doesn’t work in that way!

Until now I didn't really have an opinion of wikipedia. My opinion of wikipedia is now more of a knowledge of how wikipedia works. The concept of wikipedia is great. To allow people from all walks of life to collaborate on a project or topic is a wonderful resource. The downfall of wikipedia is maintaining the information that is posted there. With the amount of information that is posted, there is really no way to completely fact check what is there.

I would allow Wikipedia to be used as a source on a project, as long as at least two other sources were quoted with the same information. If the information could be collaborated with other sources I would allow it to be used. If the paper were more of an opinion paper I would allow it as a single source, since that information would fall in line with the paper.

I would not allow Wikipedia to be used be used in a biographical paper. I feel that there are too many other reliable sources for those type of papers to use wikipedia as a source. Since factual informaion could be changed to easily, it wouldn't be my source of choice.

I don’t think there is anything wrong with checking the information on Wikipedia, but I would never quote is a source anywhere. Obviously people can tweak that information any way they would like. It seems like Wikipedia is trying to crack down on the amount of information that is brought in to Wikipedia everyday, so that it can be monitored a little easier. Virgil Griffith has created a program that can track the IP addresses of those that make changes to the information, but even he pointed out that the system is not fail proof. Someone could go to the nearest WiFi café and log in and change info without being tracked. With all the information available on the internet, I would think it would not be hard to find other good sources to research in place of Wikipedia. If you choose to read Wikipedia for your information on any subject, you must remember that old saying, “don’t believe everything you read!”