Sunday, November 6, 2011

Wikipedia Questions

a. What is Wikipedia?
Wikipedia is a multi-lingual, online encyclopedia run by a non-profit organization called Wikimedia Foundation.

b. How would you answer the question posed in this piece “How reliable can a source be when anyone can edit it?”
I think it all depends on who's doing the editing. Sometimes it can be helpful, because if only one person or a group of people do all of the editing for such a large site, information probably wouldn't get updated very often.

c. Who do the creators of Wikipedia place their trust in when it comes to weeding out misinformation?
The general public. In their words, "the wisdom of crowds".

d. Why did founder Larry Sanger leave Wikipedia?
He believed that it should give more authority to experts.

e. What would abuse or vandalism look like on a Wikipedia page?
Spelling and grammatical errors, misinformation being presented as facts with no credidation, etc.

f. What do the statistics quoted in the third paragraph of this piece reveal?
The site is continuing to grow and expand around the world.

g. Why do you think Wikipedia is so successful?
I believe it's because it is an easy and free way to find general information quickly that you might not be able to find elsewhere.

h. Why might Wikipedia’s creators not want to accept advertising?
Ads are usually biased, and they're probably afraid that people would begin to view their site as a sort of scam.

i. How does Wikiscanner help increase the reliability of Wikipedia entries?
It helps to weed out misinformation, and records the IP addresses of the users who post the false facts. It also helps protect from biased posts made by government or business officials.

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