A Fair and Reasoned View of Wikipedia (Really!)
Posted by: Rob Hof on December 21, 2005
Danah Boyd cuts through some of the overheated arguments about Wikipedia, in the wake of recent revelations about mistakes and outright fabrications on the site:
Wikipedia is better than most of the web because YOU CAN CHANGE IT. And if you inform them that someone is acting in a malicious way, Wikipedians will actually track it to keep it neutral. Can you even imagine Google doing that for every webpage out there? Ha ha ha ha ha. Try getting an article that is libelous removed from the Google index, like a mean-spirited blog entry. Not going to happen (unless you’re Scientology). … All too often we blame the technology for problematic human behaviors. We fail to recognize that technology makes them more visible but the human behaviors are rooted in larger issues.
While she thinks Wikipedia is far, far from perfect, she correctly notes that it’s very valuable as a place to start an exploration for information—even if it shouldn’t be considered the last word.
