Assignment 6-1

Wikipedia, the world’s foremost internet encyclopedia project, has revolutionized research and collaboration as we know it. It can be edited by almost anyone with internet access, anywhere, at any time – and contains information on nearly any subject. There are many exciting features of the website, but its major selling point is that it’s a multi-lingual and comprehensive list of just about everything.

The Wikipedia site states that it has more than 1.5 million English-language entries, and eighteen foreign-language versions have more than 50,000 entries each. There are more than 250 languages represented on the site, and several DVD-ROMs have been made for commercial distribution. Its popularity is amazing, and the servers process more than 2,000 “hits” per second! (1)

Although it is a wonderful resource when seeking information on popular culture, some of its documents may be inaccurate. In 2005, the science journal “Nature” compared Wikipedia to Encyclopedia Brittanica, and found that most articles about natural sciences were similar in accuracy (2). But many documents about popular culture items and people are edited by Wikipedia members and contain inaccurate information.

Another negative issue with Wikipedia is that controversial articles are often subject to “revert wars”. Revert or edit wars are when two (or more) users repeatedly edit Wikipedia articles. This is not only a violation of policy, but also very frustrating for users. It has also recently been discovered that site administrators have blocked and unblocked articles, allowing friends and acquaintances to edit them and blocking others from doing so.

Although Wikipedia has many challenges, it has many wonderful aspects. For instance, sensitive topics can be edited to share information amongst all walks of life. If a reader deems an article to be untrue, they can “flag” it as inaccurate. At that point, volunteer editors will check facts and attempt to resolve the dispute.

As a player in popular culture, Wikipedia has emerged as a “go-to” site for information. Aside from this, it has appeared in newspaper articles, books … even popular music! (3)

I certainly think that Wikipedia is a pop culture artifact. The site’s popularity, as well as its accompanying community, continue to grow.