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:
Others may argue that your exact experience is why Wikipedia is so great-- with scholars and informed people reading having the ability to edit information correctly. I think professors are right to not include it as an acceptable source for an academic paper, but it's a great resource nonetheless.
congratulations Jane Doe! aka Leah V...Discover magazine has had several good articles on wikipedia & collective knowledge [there are other less known & some more targeted subject matter on-line-pedias also]; & much discussion on science using this 'open-source'[where everyone/anyone contributes] idea - visit discovermagazine.com & search for wikipedia...by the by the name comes from those little transit buses - wiki wiki buses - at the honolulu/hawaii airport - yay hawaii!!
[”The hive mind is for the most part stupid and boring,” says
Discover’s own Jaron Lanier.]
lotsoflove xomom
leah-you are correct, i guess i shouldn't talk about my use of it in the past because of course, i still use it! and now of course, the site on Loja has the correct information, so it is a good thing. but it's a conflicted thing in my mind-both good and bad, but really i was just amazed when i actually made a change and when i saw how easy it was!
mom-thanks for sharing, i did not know the origin of the word, interesting.
Opino que todo puede ser "fuente de información", la tarea es la del investigador en saber si son fuentes que te llevan al buen camino. Eso es lo difícil.
El éxito es del investigador que llega a la verdad, partiendo de informaciones erróneas o incompletas.
Saludos.
nacho - es verdad lo que dices. que dificil es encontrar la verdad, pero es más, tenemos que pensar en de quién es esa verdad, hay la verdad de los ganadores y la de los perdedores, o sea, los ricos y los pobres, quienes tienen perspectivas distintas de la vida...que dificil es
un abrazo
Sí lo es. Es muy difícil.
Un besote.
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