Reliability of Wikipedia

Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia containing a collection of articles from various authors. It is among the most popular websites globally. Most daily internet users access Wikipedia pages making the website stand out as a common source of essential information. Users can add new works or edit the contents of other users’ articles. According to Hasty et al., “Since its 2001 launch, Wikipedia has become the most popular general reference site on the Internet, ranking sixth globally based on Internet traffic” (368). With many volunteers around the world, Wikipedia has massive content that is distributed in different languages. The size and popularity of the platform make it a common source of general information for various people such as students…

Current technology such as laptops and internet, has allowed the growth of collaborative learning by giving people instant access to information, the best example of which is Wikipedia. There is no doubt that Wikipedia is the largest online encyclopedia now, but it is still uncommon to see the use of Wikipedia in classrooms. The truth is, Wikipedia is one of the best candidates for learning tools, because of its collaborative nature. The reason behind the unpopularity of Wikipedia is that many…

Wikipedia is known for being a rich source for information on thousands of topic. Due to its open source format, pages consist of information from a medley of sources. With that, some information is lost from each specific source, as not all the contents of each source can be included on a page. For my investigation, I looked at Wikipedia’s page for Cattle. I have always been interested in the animal, as cows are my favorite, but I never took the time to actually learn about it. When I was…

Over the course of the last few weeks we have learned about several methods of research. One of these methods was working with Wikipedia. While working with Wikipedia I realized that this crowd-sourced tool is actually well maintained, accurate, and could actually be considered a conventional method of research. However, Timothy Messer-Kruse, a professor in the School of Cultural and Critical Studies at Bowling Green State University and author of The ‘Undue Weight’ of Truth on Wikipedia…

What is Wikipedia? Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia used for finding what some people call “facts”, information, details and content about a certain person, place or thing. Some people would rate Wikipedia pretty high simply because its always the first site that pops up when looking for answers to a logical question or even going as far as to determining the context of a statement. Others would rate Wikipedia extremely low simply because anyone is eligible to place their own thoughts and…

Academic researcher, Danah Boyd, argues in her article, “Wikipedia as a Site of Knowledge Production”, of how using Wikipedia as a credible source should be accepted. Many students have been told to steer away from Wikipedia, but Boyd does a superb job of discussing how the information on Wikipedia is easy to understand, it is new and frequently evolving, and it is less bias than books. Some may say that Wikipedia isn’t credible because people can always change the information at any time, but…

1. How can Wikipedia maintain and grow its ability to harness the crowdsourcing of its “Wikipedians” to maintain high quality (and quickly updated) content? If Wikipedia can demonstrate effectively the potency of innovation in a competitive weapon it will simultaneously create and destroy value. Firms must be able to innovate while also fending off competitor’s imitation attempts. A successful strategy requires both an effective offense and a hard to crack defense. The reason for Wikipedia’s…

In discussions of Wikipedia, one controversial issue has been its credibility. On the one hand, some like Neil L. Waters argue that it is an unreliable source. On the other hand, Darren Crovitz and W. Scott Smoot contend that Wikipedia can be as reliable as any traditional reference when used properly. My own view is alongside Crovitz and Smoot, Wikipedia should be considered credible if the information given is accurate. If you don’t want to rely solely on Wikipedia it could at least be a good…

7 October 2011 Effects on Nurses Working Long Hours Patients in a hospital and/or healthcare facilities have to be cared for all day and all night, everyday of the week by nurses. The usual way to fulfill this need is to divide up the day into three 8-hour shifts. Different shifts have been put into place to help improve nurse satisfaction, decrease the nursing shortage and save the hospital money. The 24-hour day is made up of two 12-hour shifts; 12 hours in the day and 12 hours at night.…

I have heard of the encyclopedia, but I have never actually seen it and I was unaware that the encyclopedia had an online website. After my observation at Bangor High School, I decided to look more closely to Britannica and I was pleasantly surprised how well the encyclopedia was set up. Britannica has some similarities to Wikipedia, but it seems to be better set up and more reliable. I have always used Wikipedia with my research papers and such, but I now believe that I will start using…