this is part of an article that appeared on msn today:
Perhaps the most recognized application of open-source technology in the world, Wikipedia is the online encyclopedia that has become a research staple for millions of Web users.
Written collaboratively by volunteers, Wikipedia has become a smash success. The free site includes more than 845,000 articles in English alone and has won a loyal legion of fans. John Seigenthaler does not number among them.
In an op-ed published Thursday in USA Today, Seigenthaler wrote about his anguish after learning about a false Wikipedia entry that listed him as having been briefly suspected of involvement in the assassinations of both John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy. The 78-year-old Seigenthaler--a former assistant attorney general working under Bobby Kennedy--got Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales to delete the defamatory information in October. Unfortunately, that was four months after the original posting.
Maybe this is part of the price that we're going to have to pay for the open approach where the system's very strength sometimes turns out to be its Achilles' heel: Somebody nursing a grudge can always pervert or airbrush the historical record. To be sure, it can happen in the so-called proprietary or for-profit world as well. The hope is that the collective wisdom of the cyberworld can police the system to catch the mistakes sooner rather than later.
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3 comments:
Yeah i caught that article. Still it is a good way to get a basic, general overview. For research I only use it for getting key words and large concepts to search on reputable resource pages.
Aside from the use of it. It really puts into perspective the digital age. Technology affords alot of convienence but its permanence is questionable at best. Case in point: the other day I was in the library at UofW, using an encyclopedia. A Librarian came up to me and put an orange dot on the volume I was reading.
"whats that for?" Isaid
"Oh, the library has us tracking which books are used by students and which are not." said she
"Sounds like some sort of survey?"
She replied: "No sir. The library is thinking of going over to digital and they want to get rid of the books people don't much use."
My jaw dropped.
"You mean like getting RID of all of these books?!"
"Yes" she said "Big Brother is watching." and then she walked away.
Weird but true. Oh wonderful century of facade and lonliness.
Krahn, stop lying.
:)
Wikid
I make too many new words. Here is a new spelling for an old one.
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