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Wikipedia

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Charis Creber

Wikipedia is a wiki website that allows any visitor to edit or amend pages using a normal web browser. It has over 25 million pages and over 500 million edits. Studies have found Wikipedia to be as accurate as the Encyclopedia Britannica for science entries. While controversial topics can attract vandalism, the transparent editing history allows pages to be reverted and balanced discussions of different viewpoints to emerge.

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Wikipedia 'The free encyclopaedia that anyone can edit' • A wiki is a website that any visitor can add to, and amend, using a normal web browser. Wikipedia is just the most widely recognised.
How does it work? • Alongside each wiki page there is a discussion page, and a history of all edits, so that its development is transparent. • If a page is vandalised – or amended in a way you happen to disagree with – it can be restored to a former version, via the history page
Links to the web’s roots • In 2003, Jimmy Wales (one of the founders of Wikipedia) founded the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit charitable organisation, and donated Wikipedia to it, an act intended to secure its non-commercial future. In doing so, Wales surrendered the opportunity to sell Wikipedia, potentially losing out on an estimated $3 billion
Statistics http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Statistics • 25,969,134 pages (as of 13/01/12) • 510,216,526 page edits • 19.65 edits per page (on average) • Alexa rank #6
Accuracy • The notion that any statement that anybody has ever managed to get into a book or article is going to be inherently better than Wikipedia content clearly doesn't make sense, especially as Wikipedia is subject to continuous checking and updating – precisely unlike anything in print. • A study published in the science journal Nature compared Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Brittanica and found that – and I quote – 'Wikipedia comes close to Britannica in terms of the accuracy of its science entries‘.
Why Contribute? • Users spend hours collaborating on an accessible resource for others, for very little personal reward. • Sense well-being from showing off knowledge. • Kudos from other contributors. • Basic human need to feel a part of a community, sense of belonging.
Vandalism and controversy • Controversial topics attract people with axes to grind, but then those people are forced into dialogue with others, and a balanced presentation of different viewpoints is arrived at. • Controversial views not excluded, but may end up with whole articles of their own: as in the case of the detailed articles on, for example, 9/11 conspiracy theories, and holocaust denial).

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Wikipedia

  • 1. Wikipedia 'The free encyclopaedia that anyone can edit' • A wiki is a website that any visitor can add to, and amend, using a normal web browser. Wikipedia is just the most widely recognised.
  • 2. How does it work? • Alongside each wiki page there is a discussion page, and a history of all edits, so that its development is transparent. • If a page is vandalised – or amended in a way you happen to disagree with – it can be restored to a former version, via the history page
  • 3. Links to the web’s roots • In 2003, Jimmy Wales (one of the founders of Wikipedia) founded the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit charitable organisation, and donated Wikipedia to it, an act intended to secure its non-commercial future. In doing so, Wales surrendered the opportunity to sell Wikipedia, potentially losing out on an estimated $3 billion
  • 4. Statistics http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Statistics • 25,969,134 pages (as of 13/01/12) • 510,216,526 page edits • 19.65 edits per page (on average) • Alexa rank #6
  • 5. Accuracy • The notion that any statement that anybody has ever managed to get into a book or article is going to be inherently better than Wikipedia content clearly doesn't make sense, especially as Wikipedia is subject to continuous checking and updating – precisely unlike anything in print. • A study published in the science journal Nature compared Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Brittanica and found that – and I quote – 'Wikipedia comes close to Britannica in terms of the accuracy of its science entries‘.
  • 6. Why Contribute? • Users spend hours collaborating on an accessible resource for others, for very little personal reward. • Sense well-being from showing off knowledge. • Kudos from other contributors. • Basic human need to feel a part of a community, sense of belonging.
  • 7. Vandalism and controversy • Controversial topics attract people with axes to grind, but then those people are forced into dialogue with others, and a balanced presentation of different viewpoints is arrived at. • Controversial views not excluded, but may end up with whole articles of their own: as in the case of the detailed articles on, for example, 9/11 conspiracy theories, and holocaust denial).