In the chapter of Social Knowing, Wienberger discusses the rise of Wikipedia and blogs. This has allowed people to publish information on any topic they choose. You can search anything on Wikipedia from a tv show to a barley known actor. Now Wikipedia is looking foward to inform and educate more. They allow edits and secure some pages form vandalism.(which is making it hard for me to find a topic) When I waqs younger my mom would make me look up certain things in the encyclopedia. Like Mrs. Markman said, “if there was a mistake in an encyclopedia it was there until the next edition came out.” Blogs also became hot spots for up to date info. Facebook and Twitter allow you to receive information every minute. This goes back to democratization of distribution. Anything can be published with a click of a button.
Technology has mad it possible to research any topic with a few strokes of the keyboard, Since basically anyone can create or edit information onto wikipedia you must becareful and look for other sources.
And to add to that, part of the idea of Wikipedia is that people will contribute – so if you think about social knowing/collective intelligence, it’s not just combining knowledge, but *evaluating* that knowledge that leads to collective intelligence. So always do the research.
I found it kind of insane that the mistake ratio for Wikipedia and actual encyclopedias was so close. it seems like if I was involved with publishing something that I knew people all over the country would depend on as a reliable source, I would make damn sure I had my facts 100% straight. I understand it is not an easy task to make sure of that with all the information that is compiled in bound encyclopedias, but that is the risk you take. The internet is slowly becoming more and more reliable with people finally wising up and using the right sources and know what garbage to ignore. There are still rumors and lies spread over the web everyday, but it has become a lot easier to get one’s facts straight with all the outlets that are available now. Wikipedia is slowly becoming something that is not seen as so unreliable anymore. Everything is switching over to online mediums. Information is readily available 24/7. It is also just as easy to pass on information. There will probably always be the vandals, but the programmers are becoming better and better at shutting them down.
Wikipedia can be updated at anytime with either the correct or incorrect information, but I believe it eventually becomes accurate. Encyclopedias were something I wouldn’t dare read while growing up. We had an encyclopedia assignment in high school that I refused to do. I was given a C because I was a very important athlete at my school, but this wikipedia project we have coming up is going to be very cool. Wikipedia has always come through in the clutch for me, so I hope I do well. Fingers crossed. Great comment in my opinion…