Is Wikipedia Junk or Reliable?

       Wikipedia was created in 2001 by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger. The goal of Wikipedia was to give people a free-encyclopedia. Thousands of volunteers around the world help provide accurate information onto Wikipedia. One of the concerns people have with Wikipedia is that anybody is able to go on and edit information. The information will not always be correct with what they put on, but there is a committee who tries to correct the information to make sure it is accurate. In Andrew Keen's "The Noble Amateur" Keen talks about how these people that work for Wikipedia are amateurs and are not professionals so they should not be publishing information. Keen believes an amateur is, "A hobbyist, knowledgable or otherwise someone who does not make a living from his or her frield of interest"(Keen). Keen believes these people who are not professionals should not be providing information and pretending to be a encyclopedia. Wikipedia is a free enclycopedia and because it is free it is not always going to be the best quality. But most of Wikipedia is good enough so therefore Wikipedia is not junk and can be a realiable source.
     Wikipedia has great tools that can  be extremely helpful to an individual. Most teachers do not want students citing Wikipiedia as a source, but there are some great tools. On the bottom of every page there will be the work cited page. The information down there and where they received their facts are very reliable and from professionals. So maybe people should not cite Wikipedia, but the references they use are incredibly helpful and legit resources. Also, people need to remember that Wikipedia is a free enclyopedia. If somebody wants better quality then people are going to have to pay more. Which is what Britannica Enclyopedia is. But not everybody wants to pay more for such resources, so just because something is free it can still be very good information and be useful. Keen stated, "Democratic consequence of digital revolution is dictatorship of idiots"(Keen). The idiots Keen is talking about is the amateurs who post information on Wikipedia. What Keen does not realize is Wikipedia has been occuring for ten years now and they have improved in cleaning up the inaccuarate information. Another reading we read called "Wikipedia" by Clay Shirky, Shirky talks about how Wikipedia's content in not trash and people are not vandalizing Wikipedia like they did in the past. Wikipedia is cleaning up their information and trying to make their information accurate. People around the world are beginning to respect that and are not posting inaccurate information. Maybe because they do not want to go through all the trouble to get blocked or maybe because they use Wikipedia for research papers and want to use the accurate information for their paper. Wikipedia is becoming a more reliable tool for information.
     Wikipedia is the 17th most tracked website on the internet, while Britannica is 5,128. (Keen) The committee that works for Wikipedia is realizing that their site is becoming extremely successful and they know it is their responsibility to make sure they have honest and accurate information. People are starting to respect how reliable Wikipedia is and not vandalizing the information. Wikipedia is a great website for people to find references for research. Even though most of our teachers do not want their students citing Wikipedia there are great sources on the bottom of the page that students can look at that are from professional sources. Wikipedia continues to grow and become more reliable with their information and soon teachers will realize that the information is accurate and will allow students to cite from there. Wikipedia has some flaws, but overall it is very reliable source and very beneficial for students, especially someone like me who is a college kid and does not want to pay to look up information!
Hope all enjoyed my blog and please feel free to post any comments you have. All are always welcomed to Max's World.