Wikipedia - Heather

I absolutely love Wikipedia and have found it to be a great starting point for most forms of research. Its accuracy and great bibliographies have made it a valuable information source as I begin any research project. The one downside is that I often find numerous links are broken, however there are so many useful articles conveniently linked through Wikipedia that they overshadow broken links.

The accuracy of Wikipedia continues to surprise me: Last semester at UNI a friend told me that his graphic design class decided to compare the accuracy of their textbook with Wikipedia and found that Wikipedia was actually more up-to-date than the textbook. This is an example of how efficient Wikipedia is in updating its information rapidly. It's easy to see that Wikipedia is easily accessible since every individual with internet access whether it's on the phone or computer can access the website.

Wikipedia can, in some ways, conquer expertise because of its immediacy factor – it allows instant input in a world that is constantly changing. For instance, the reason Wikipedia was a more accurate source of information than the graphic design textbook is probably because graphic design programs and trends change so rapidly. This rapid change in information cannot be processed fast enough for the long writing and editing process of textbooks to keep up-to-date, while Wikipedia can be updated by the creators of the programs instantly.

I would argue that for Wikipedia to truly conquer expertise the worlds’ idea of who holds expertise must first change. Instead of degrees from traditional school giving individuals credibility individuals must be given credit as experts for the knowledge they have gleaned through life-situations and information searching. This would be a drastic change in thought for many, however and is fairly realistic and even frightening as change usually is. Most sane individuals within academia and even business professionals I imagine would shudder at the thought of expertise on business management technique being granted to a 20 year old blue-collar worker who happens to enjoy reading business articles and contributing to Wikipedia in his free time. I will argue that diplomas are simply pieces of paper – and that in reality there are better, and equally adequate, ways of educating oneself outside of attending credited schools of learning. We shouldn’t then discredit Wikipedia’s expertise, instead we should question our own notion of how we really grant individuals the “expert” label.

People give up their time freely to share with others usually to get something back in return. For instance, one may share a music link or excellent news article with hope that in return others will point them to pertinent information they would not have heard of otherwise. I do this in certain cases; if there’s an article on the public relations profession that I found to be helpful I’ll forward it on to other people within that community. If I find a new band, etc that I love I’ll share a link to a song. I believe that another reason people may give up their time freely to share information with others is because individuals desire a shared experience. Passing on the exciting “new” knowledge allows us be part of a collective group.