Wiki - Did You Ever Use One? Colleges Are Beginning to Participate with Wiki's Now

A recent query on Google led me to Wikipedia, a common occurrence to those that use the internet for research for both personal and business use. Often times a wiki entry will be one of the top 10 choices on just about any given topic using just about any browser.

If you query 'citing Wikipedia', ironically, it brings you to a page on Wikipedia that states very clearly that Wiki's should not be solely relied on for information and that is because anyone can add information to Wiki.

The sole purpose of Wiki is to share existing information that can be verified or validated through other more historically reputable sources such as encyclopedia's, biographies, and other types of reference work. To see how Wikis work, watch a You Tube video here.

10 Things You Didn't Know About Wikipedia

Here is an informative article about 10 Things You Didn't Know about Wikipedia from Wiki.

Online Schools used to expressly forbid using Wiki for sources

When I began the pursuit of my online education, I found Wikipedia to be extremely helpful as a starting point to begin research. In fact, I often found it to be the most comprehensive and current place to begin my data research. The only thing was the university did not allow students to use it as a formal source for student papers. In most cases, however, that is not a problem.

For most Wikipedia entries, there is usually a blue number that corresponds with a source document that is listed at the bottom of each article. By simply following the author's source on Wikipedia, a researcher can find a "pass through" to the reliable and accepted reference.

Schools are starting to recognize the value of readily available information but doesn't it conflict with their business models?

What is interesting to find out is that universities and colleges are starting to change their tune about using Wiki's. Carlton College faculty site on using Wikipedia as a reference suggests that the students should understand the limitations of the construct of the site, in the fact that there is no procedure that writers have to go through to post updates to the site. There is room for fallacy and undocumented information, but at the same time, there is quality control including the ability of the users to report quality problems, and the site remains one of the most current and centralized location to obtain "free information".

In addition, a new trend seems to have professors having students participate in updating Wikipedia and learning how to participate in formalized knowledge gathering. That is a huge change from where things were just 5 years ago. (Carleton College)

What I see as the pro's of places like Wiki is that they are centralized, free, and participative. The hope is that if other experts question the legitimacy of an entry, they can flag it and the people who run Wiki will either verify the data or remove it, and at least the flag can be viewed. Also, the history is accesible so you can see posts that are questionable.

What I see as the cons are that people's attitudes about using Wiki might not have caught up with the reality that it is a great place to start to gather information particularly the longer the site is in existance. I'm not sure how it will affect those businesses that are accustomed to being paid for their information gathering and production abilities.

I can't help but throw this in there. For every system, there is a producer and a user, for every Ying there is a Yang, and for each strength; there is a corresponding weakness. With that in mind, there are also wiki-givers and wiki-takers.

Back in January 2006, the question was can wiki survive, and the answer in 2010, is clearly, yes it can.

Are you a Wiki User or a Wiki Producer?

Competition for online Wikipedia is the traditional Encyclopedia Britannica. There are also specific encyclopedias for body building, magic, for medical research and a host of other things that are built based upon specific expertise. Newspapers, magazines and traditional encyclopedia businesses are being shaken up by the availability of free information on the internet.

Do you use a Wiki, and if so, which ones? Do you just use it as a beginning point, do you use it as a reference, and/or have you ever updated information on a Wiki such as photo's to share with others?

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:UsabilityInitiativePrefSwitch

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1361

Wiki Main Page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page