Thursday, February 28, 2008

affirm life

over there is over here

posted by leah v @ 4:17 PM 1 comments

Monday, February 11, 2008

the free market of knowledge

whenever professors stipulated that they would not accept Wikipedia as a credible source, i simply respected this opinion, without holding one of my own. i understood what Wikipedia was-that anyone could post on Wikipedia, absolutely anyone-but i still used it to find information. when i came across people or historical events i wasn't familiar with, i would throw it into google search, and read the subsequent Wikipedia article that surfaced, usually finding it to be informative and helpful. while i respected the opinion of my professors, i didn't understand until 5 minutes ago what, really, Wikipedia really is.

on the Wikipedia page for "Loja Province," the first sentence of the "Overview" used to say "[...] Ecuador is recognized as being a friendly and pleasant city." when i read this, of course i reacted quite strongly. Ecuador is a country, not a city. as of 5 minutes ago, the page for "Loja Province" no longer says this.

why?

because I changed it. yes, me, Jane Doe of Ohio, U.S.A. i created an account in seconds, using my email and a password. they didn't even ask for my name. i then clicked "edit," changed the word "Ecuador" to "Loja" and clicked "save changes." deed done.

this is why, my friends, some people do not consider Wikipedia a credible source. con razón. is anyone else as stupefied as i am? try it yourself.

posted by leah v @ 5:38 PM 6 comments