i often used wikipedia for research assignments at my former work . i was required to gather information on various topics that i was not very familiar with. with not much previous information or knowledge, i start searching and browsing in the internet, feeling like i was swimming in the sea of information. one day i came across wikipedia. the depth and scope of information it carried on my query just fascinated me and literally saved me from panic attack of information searching under pressure.
wow! it was so detailed and it had almost every information that i needed including pros and cons, besides that, all the hyperlinks that took me to deeper and deeper into the subject area were so helpful and time-saving.
it was just 'too' good! and then i started questioning 'what is this?' and soon after, i grasped what it is and how it's made... yes, it was just 'too' good. we all know when something or someone is 'too' good, we need to step back and question....
i applaud Wales' mission to "distribute a free encyclopedia to every single person on the planet in their own language', and it's incredible to see that one man's humble mission turned into such a powerful reality. Wales did succeed in fulfilling his mission, but wikipedia suffers an unsolved agenda: its lack of reliability. the fact that anybody can access and edit contents sounds truly democratic but also 'anarchistic'.
contributors with good will work on checks and balance, but there are and will be 'bad guys' who vandalize, as there are bad guys everywhere. without having proper mechanism for controlling those bad guys and susceptibility to misinformation, who knows what the encyclopedia wikipedia will turn into in the future?
after learning what wikipedia provides and what it doesn't, do i still use it for research? hmm, yes, to be honest. i still refer to wikipedia for a variety of queries because i can't resist its convenience, but i'm aware of its potential risks, and never use it for academic research unless my topic is too current in nature and availability of information.
overall, i think wikipedia is no doubt a power house of information, where you can begin with....but definitely not where you want to end up with.
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