Wikipedia

Dear CCHS SBDM members,

            Over the years there has been a lot of talk over the credibility of the Internet encyclopedia known as Wikipedia.  The argument is that Wikipedia is not a credible source because any member can go onto a page and change the information located on that page to anything they desire.  However, my class has compiled data from a recent experiment and the results show that Wikipedia can be considered a very reliable source.

            My classes experiment shows that Wiki does a very substantial job at fixing an data that isn't true.  Our experiment consisted of having every student go onto a page of his or her choice and change the information found on that page to something completely different.  We then monitored the pages and wrote down how long it took for Wiki to fix the different problems.  The data shows that 54% of the classes’ changes had been changed within a 4-hour time frame and 89% of the classes’ changes had been fix within a 24-hour time frame.  Within a 2-day frame all the changes had been changed back to normal.  This data shows that even though Wiki can allow incorrect data to be entered into it’s site, there are individuals monitoring changes to these pages and are quick to change the incorrect data.

Despite the fact that Wiki is quick to change their data, society has to understand that every online resource has its flaws.  In the article, Study: Wikipedia as accurate as Britannica, there is a study conducted that compares Wikipedia to another online encyclopedia.   The results show that the Britannica had just as many mistakes as Wikipedia had on average.  To expect that a resource, which has been open to an entire world of people, to not have any imperfections, is not possible.  It is the responsibility of the individual retrieving the data to compare his findings to another resource to compare their findings.

Overall, Wikipedia can be considered a creditable resource that delivers data that is considerably correct.  Wikipedia scans its articles and finds data that isn’t factual and does it’s best to change any data that isn’t correct into a true statement.  It is not any worse then any other online source in the sense of mistakes and gives many students a single site that can give them information over a wide variety of information.

           

Sincerely, Duane Robbins