The Ups and Downs of Wikis

I remember the first time my colleagues and I discussed the merits of wikipedia. It was probably around 2008. We were skeptical about using and recommending it because we had heard about the erroneous wiki entries posted by mean-spirited individuals looking for fun. Here are a couple of blunders:

Sinbad’s Death: The actor Sinbad was falsely reported dead by a wikipedia entry in 2007. MSNBC reports that Sinbad found out about the hoax when his daughter called him. The wikipedia entry claimed he had died of a heart attack and “had been forwarded to hundreds of people” before it was corrected.

Ted Kennedy’s death: A very high profile wikipedia blunder falsely reported the “death” of Sen. Edward Kennedy after he actually did suffer a seizure during the post-inaugural luncheon for Barack Obama in January 2009. The Washington Post reports that Kennedy’s Wikipedia entry was edited at 2:59p.m. ET “to say that he had died” by someone who registered on the site under the name “Gfdjklsdgiojksdkf.”

http://www.bestcollegesonline.com/blog/25-biggest-blunders-in-wikipedia-history

You may find other blunders and hoaxes at the above site. I began my blog with this preamble to make a point. Wikipedia launched in 2001 and it had its problems soon after. In all appearances it would seem that they were doomed for failure, by creating a service that anyone could contribute to without editorial review.

Fast forward almost 20 years and wikis are now a powerful force in the world of knowledge. I think the major strength is the cost, it is free!! It's an excellent place to began research, if you are in high school, and only if you check the sources to ascertain their validity. It's updated frequently. I find wikipedia very interesting to read. The fact that anyone can create, edit, or even delete articles is a weakness. Vandalism was a problem at it inception. Individuals would add all kind of bizarre entries as a joke.

I have discovered wikiHow and I am very excited about it. I absolutely love it. It does just what is says, "How to do everything".It has a vast array of categories to choose from and the illustrations are big, bold and bright. Additionally, there are related wikihows at the bottom of each entry page. I find strength in wikiHow.

Scholarpedia is an open access encyclopedia with peer-reviewed articles written by authors with authority. I actually wish that I had knowledge of scholarpedia when I began graduate school. It is extremely impressive.

To conclude, I think wikis have strengths, particularly since they have worked out the foibles and have more authority and controls in place.