Wikipedia is a free online open source encyclopedia that is written and edited through user contributions. Founded in 2001 by Jimmy “Jimbo” Wales the company is owed by a not-for –profit group called the Wikimedia Foundation. Originally, Wikipedia was located in Florida and had more than one hundred servers. In 2007, the company moved its headquarters to San Francisco to accommodate the growth of the organization. Two years later, Wikimedia maintained more than three hundred servers worldwide. What started as an experiment ultimately turned into an overnight success. 2. Describe the criticisms regarding Wikipedia? Why does the site generate controversy? …show more content…
Wiki etiquette is a set of principle that encourages people on how to work with each other on Wikipedia. There are three points in the wiki etiquette: Good Faith – which assumes that contributors are trying to improve the site and not sabotage it, Civility – which means that participation in Wikipedia will done in a respectful, cooperative, and polite manner, and Discussion – difference of opinions should be handled with civility and good faith first before anything else. These three etiquettes depicted the belief of Wikipedia. Wikipedia also adopted the concept of Linus’ Law in a statement on the importance of community on the website. Linus’ Law says “Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow.” This could be interpreted as the more people you have identifying potential problems (i.e. entering false information) the quicker the problem can be resolved.
5. What are Wikipedia’s strengths and weaknesses?
Wikipedia strengths are that is has a large contributors base, its open to everyone and anyone, the articles of diverse, and it provides a good reference point on subjects. Although Wikipedia has strengths it also has weaknesses such as anyone can edit the articles, prone to unchecked information and biases, omission of information, and false information may not be correct in a timely manner. Therefore, it’s vitally important for those using Wikipedia to evaluate the information and