Week 7 - Lecture

Wikipedia is definitely the first source I choose to find information about anything I need to know instantly.  Of course many of our teachers encourage us not to use it in our research essays, it is however a good starting point.

The readings for today talked about peer governance and the 'inclusionist and deletionists' of Wikipedia. The most interesting section was the example case of the 'inclusionist and deletionists'. It is without a doubt that Wikipedia's information is untrustworthy. Mainly because people can edit the information easily. It is an open source. Although it is now quite restricted, it is still doubtful. Some information can be true but some can be fabricated. But, then again, despite of all this, people tend to come around Wikipedia usage. Perhaps because we are already so used to it, it is an automatic choice. Like using Google as search engine.  'Google it' is probably the most common phrase now... 'Just quickly read Wikipedia' is only just behind.

Kostakis, V 2010, 'Identifying and Understanding the Problems of Wikipedia's Peer Governance: The Case of Inclusionists Versus Deletionists', First Monday, vol. 15, no. 3, viewed 7 September 2011, <http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2613/2479>