Reading Assignment # 2

The article “Can Wikipedia Ever Make the Grade?” is about the controversy of whether Wikipedia can be consider a reliable source or not, being that anyone can post or edit an article on this site. Furthermore, Wikipedia at one point in time did not require posters to register to their site before posting or editing information. Wikipedia did explain that they have editors that monitor the site 24/7 to look at recently updated information, to deal with misinformation immediately. Many people believe this process is not efficient in terms of the amount of times the article is viewed, before editors are able to check it. In the article many scholars argued, that the site could not be a reliable source because anyone could post or edit it. They felt that there should be some kind of credential requirement to be able to post or edit to the site. On the other hand, Jimmy Wales, the co-founder of Wikipedia, argued that anyone who has reliable knowledge of a subject should be able to post or edit the content. He believes that the site should not be limited to scholars only. Wales also encouraged scholars to participate in the site, since a lot of them were unhappy with the content posted. So this question was raised, “Can Wikipedia Ever Make the Grade?”

I understand were scholars are coming from as far as anyone being able to post to the site. I agree that there should be some kind of academic requirement because you have a lot of people coming to this website to get research information, and not just to use it as a pleasure website. I also like the idea of Citizendium, “an alternate version of Wikipedia that lets an editorial panel of experts put articles through a form of peer review before certifying them as worthy of public,” because I believe with this process you’ll end up with a more reliable source. One thing that I did not like was the harassment people were giving Wikipedia towards their editorial process. I felt that the majority of the arguments were nonsense. For example, one argument was that Wikipedia provided too much misinformation. Other sites on the world-wide web provide just as much misinformation as they claim Wikipedia does. At least Wikipedia is working towards trying to not have misinformation posted on their site often. I think that they should not get the boot because of someone else posting misinformation on their website, it’s not like their purposely trying to provide the public misinformation. It will be interesting to see were Wikipedia stands on this issue over the next five to six years.

Brock Read, “Can Wikipedia Ever Make the Grade?,” October 27, 2006.