Wikipedia
From LIS 460 Summer 2007
A wiki is a collaborative website and an encyclopedia is a reference material with information on a variety of subjects. When you combine the two, you get Wikipedia! A collaborative website co-founded by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger as a free content encyclopedia, Wikipedia was launched January 15, 2001. The concept of Wikipedia is that it is an encylclopedia written by contributors from all over the world, and it's all free. Anyone can edit almost any page (some pages are locked), or create a new Wikipedia entry if the topic they are looking for is not included.
Wikipedia has approximately 7.5 million articles in 253 languages. It is the largest, most extensive, and fasted growing encyclopdia ever compiled. It is ranked as one of the top 10 most-visited websites worldwide. (Wikipedia)
Because of the open nature of the content, many people question the accurateness and reliability of information found on Wikipedia. However, in a study conducted by British journal Nature, it was found that Wikipedia's science articles were not significantly less accurate than the reknowned Encyclopedia Britannica. There were 8 serious inaccuracies found total, 4 from each encyclopedia.
Wikipedia is run on clusters of Linux servers in Florida, and four other locations worldwide. It uses the software, MediaWiki, which is an open source, free software platform.
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Searching Wikipedia
Searching Wikipedia is as simple as searching on an internet search engine. It's often the first site users go to when they need to find information quickly about a topic. On the main search page, users can type in any subject and choose a language to search in.
Wikipedia has a vast scope of information that is covered. Users can search anything from a specific date in history to a plot for a book or movie. Internal links in articles are provided to related articles in Wikipedia. Active links are blue where red links have not yet been written or have been removed. Anyone who has a registered user name with Wikipedia can log in and create or edit an article on Wikipedia. All articles edited and written are expected to comply with Wikipedia official policy.
Wikipedia in schools
There are many ways Wikipedia can be used in schools. It can be used as a reference tool prior to beginning a research project. In the beginning of a search for information, many students do not know how to even begin searching for information on the topic. Wikipedia gives a good general overview of topics, and can give students good ideas as to what keywords they need to be searching in their search process. Teachers should advise students to always check information found on Wikipedia for accuracy if they plan to include it as one of their references. One way of checking a reference is to see if Wikipedia has a footnote attached to the information, which links to the Reference section at the bottom of the page. Also, there is a box on the right side of the article which tells users more about the article, if it's part of a series of articles, if there is verified content, etc. Students can also use Wikipedia to find external links to related websites, which also would help in the research process.
Students could also use Wikipedia after they complete a research paper. Information they found could be checked against the Wikipedia article. If there is any discrepencies between the two or if there is a lack of information, and the student has a credible soure, he/she could edit the article.
Wikipedia clearly states that Wikipedia is not a place to post papers and homework assignments, so edits should only be made if the prior information is erroneous or the change is credible, and enhances the article. Students should not be assigned to create an article in Wikipedia unless it meets all the criteria for creating an article in Wikipedia and there is not already an article on the same topic.
Questions about Wikipedia
1. With the ability to add/create an article about virtually anything, how does Wikipedia stay on top of articles that could be false, poorly written, or contain vulgar/offensive material?
Answer: (from What Wikipedia is not) Wikipedia is not censored
See also: Wikipedia:Profanity, Wikipedia:No disclaimers in articles, and Censorship
Wikipedia may contain content that some readers consider objectionable or offensive. Anyone reading Wikipedia can edit an article and the changes are displayed instantaneously without any checking to ensure appropriateness, so Wikipedia cannot guarantee that articles or images are tasteful to all users or adhere to specific social or religious norms or requirements. While obviously inappropriate content (such as an irrelevant link to a shock site) is usually removed immediately, or content that is judged to violate Wikipedia's Biographies of living persons policy can be removed, some articles may include objectionable text, images, or links if they are relevant to the content (such as the article about pornography) and do not violate any of our existing policies (especially Neutral point of view), nor the law of the U.S. state of Florida, where Wikipedia's servers are hosted. Link
2. Wikipedia has become a tool that is used so commonly, are there any toolbars that feature a Wikipedia search box that would be available on every open browser window?
Answer: Mozilla Firefox web browser has the feature of adding search engines to their tool bar. In this feature you can select from a list of search engines that will appear in the top right hand corner of your browser in every open window. Wikipedia is one of the available features and can be added to any Mozilla web browser. The answer is opened into a new tab in the same browser.
Links
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is not...
Wikipedia offical policy
Create a Wikipedia account!
Download Mozilla Firefox
