{"id":10859,"date":"2007-06-11T15:05:46","date_gmt":"2007-06-11T22:05:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2007\/06\/11\/wikipedia.html"},"modified":"2014-11-10T15:26:00","modified_gmt":"2014-11-10T22:26:00","slug":"wikipedia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/06\/11\/wikipedia.html","title":{"rendered":"Wikipedia"},"content":{"rendered":"

I love Wikipedia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Discounting folks with a vested interest in badmouthing Wikipedia, the site\/organization\/system gets bad press because people try to make it something it’s not.  Wikipedia is not <\/em>tablets handed down from God (though it’s a lot more transparent in its declarations).  It’s not <\/em>even the Encyclopedia Britannica (though it has a lot more content). <\/p>\n

Wikipedia is <\/em>a bunch of people presenting information they are interested in or know about in an organized, hyperlinked fashion.  It’s the Web writ small.<\/p>\n

As a volunteer effort, and one that’s open to pretty much anyone who wants to throw stuff out there, Wikipedia does face problems that need to be borne in mind.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Contributors make mistakes.<\/li>\n
  2. Contributors have agendas that explicitly or implicitly color what they present as fact.<\/li>\n
  3. Contributors are sometimes obnoxious, vandalistic, libelous, or simply don’t take the effort seriously.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    You could, of course, level the same charge against any form of media — from the Web as a whole to the New York Times <\/em>or Wall Street Journal<\/em>.  They have editorial boards (which can be biased), and they have subscribers and customers and advertisers (which can make them biased, too), but they also have resources to get at info and usually encourage better writing style. <\/p>\n

    Wikipedia isn’t going to make Time Magazine <\/em>obsolete — but Time <\/em>is never going to be able to do what Wikipedia does.  There are a zillion Wikipedia entries out there, on all shapes and sizes of stuff, and a lot of them have great information collected on them.  And, like all web (or, again, media) sources, the important thing to do is trust but verify:<\/em><\/p>\n

      \n
    1. If a source is cited <\/strong>on a Wikipedia page (which most entries are, or else end up with a [citation needed] tag), follow up on that source.  That source might, in turn, also be biased, or even misread, but it might also confirm what’s being said.  While the mainstream media isn’t free of problems (as noted), I do feel better relying on something in Wikipedia if it has, in fact, been in a major media source.<\/li>\n
    2. If the subject matter is controversial<\/strong>, bear that in mind (as you should in in any media — but, perhaps, more so here).   Use your own critical judgment.  The more controversial a subject, the more likely that an entry is going to be slanted one way or the other (or, if you have multiple people editing an entry, in more than one way).<\/li>\n
    3. If something just seems … off … it may well be. <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      I wouldn’t write a term paper based solely on Wikipedia entries — but I might use it as a starting point for a term paper, looking up the sources cited, and I might use it as background to understand a couple of things I run across in a text.  I certainly feel I can rely upon it to give decent factual information in areas where there’s no obvious axe to grind (What happened in 1922 worldwide?  When was Queen Victoria born?  Who was Saint Swithin? What’s TCP\/IP?  What are Kim Possible’s twin brothers’ names?).  As such, it’s often easier and more enriching to take a least a first pass at Wikipedia for my questions, not necessarily counting on it as the final answer.<\/p>\n

      And, as such, I love Wikipedia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      I love Wikipedia. Discounting folks with a vested interest in badmouthing Wikipedia, the site\/organization\/system gets bad press because people try to make it something it’s not.  Wikipedia is not tablets handed…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,263,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogging","category-disney","category-fourth-estate"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12598,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/03\/13\/how_trivial_should_wikipe.html","url_meta":{"origin":10859,"position":0},"title":"How trivial should Wikipedia get?","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 13-Mar-08 9:52pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The battle between the \"inclusionists\" and the \"deletionists\" rages on. Inclusionists believe that the disparity between Pok\u00e9mon and Solidarity biographies would disappear by itself, if only Wikipedia loosened its relatively...","rel":"","context":"In "Hi-Tech"","block_context":{"text":"Hi-Tech","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/hi-tech"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10291,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/02\/22\/when_you_absolutely_posit.html","url_meta":{"origin":10859,"position":1},"title":"When you absolutely, positively need to get the right-wing truth","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 22-Feb-07 8:48pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Presenting ... Conservapedia! Conservapedia is a much-needed alternative to Wikipedia, which is increasingly anti-Christian and anti-American. On Wikipedia, many of the dates are provided in the anti-Christian \"C.E.\" instead of...","rel":"","context":"In "ZT & PC"","block_context":{"text":"ZT & PC","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/zt-pc"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":130379,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/04\/08\/the-joy-of-wikipedia-and-xkcd.html","url_meta":{"origin":10859,"position":2},"title":"The Joy of Wikipedia (and XKCD)","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 8-Apr-16 4:29pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I have been in the Talk pages of enough Wikipedia topics to find this respiratory-arrest-laughing-too-hard funny.Be sure and go to the actual page for the hover-text finale. Originally shared by +Yonatan Zunger: Today's XKCD (http:\/\/xkcd.com\/1665\/) is absolutely wonderful. I really love +Randall Munroe's sense of humor. \u00a0 View on Google+","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/city_talk_pages.pngimgmax%3D660.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":137205,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/09\/17\/wikipedia-is-trying-to-virtually-preserve-brazils-lost-heritage.html","url_meta":{"origin":10859,"position":3},"title":"Wikipedia is trying to virtually preserve Brazil's lost heritage","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 17-Sep-18 11:57pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The fire at the Brazil National Museum was a horrifying tragedy. The museum contained tremendous amounts of South American heritage items, but also antiquities from around the world. Wikipedia is trying to collect as much visual information about these items as possible, so that scholars can associate the information they\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":130224,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/03\/18\/consensual-reality-and-wikipedia.html","url_meta":{"origin":10859,"position":4},"title":"Consensual Reality and Wikipedia","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 18-Mar-16 3:48am","format":false,"excerpt":"In general, the more controversial \/ political a subject is, the more dodgy Wikipedia can be. Want to know something about that 18th Century French poet? Triffic stuff. Want to know something about this week's SCOTUS nominee? You might want to really strongly consider what's being cited and by whom\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32850,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/03\/22\/an-oily-sheen-on-wikipedias-armor.html","url_meta":{"origin":10859,"position":5},"title":"An oily sheen on Wikipedia's armor","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 22-Mar-13 2:02pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Wikipedia is an awesome resource. But crowdsourcing is never perfect, and\u00a0\u00a0I wouldn't trust implicitly\u00a0nearly anything posted there on any person, group, event, or issue even the least bit controversial ... without first going to the cited sources and checking them out.Even so forearmed, this sounds like a problem that Wikipedia\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10859"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10859\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47792,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10859\/revisions\/47792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}