Fogler Library: BUA 325 Course Guide

Information since 1868

Wikipedia - the good, the bad, and the ugly

Background information

Founded in 2001 by Jimmy Wales
36% of U.S. online users consult Wikipedia. (Rainie & Tancer, 2007)
Eighth most popular website among online users in the U.S. (Alexa.com)
Ninth most popular website globally. (Alexa.com)
Nearly ten million articles in 253 languages (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia)
Around 2 million articles in English with over 195 million edits
Articles may be changed constantly
Network of volunteers

Features of Wikipedia

Consensus-driven articles
Anybody can edit the articles

Guidelines for article submission

No original research
Neutral point of view
Verifiability, not truth

Problems with using Wikipedia as a research tool

Lack of authority
Peer-review process not on par with academic process
Articles change constantly with edits
Authors unnamed

Jimmy Wales:

"it's only a starting point because there's always a chance that there's something wrong." (2007, April 2).
"college students ... should not use it for class projects or serious research." (2006, June 23)

Using Wikipedia

To find topics for research papers
Check out referenced resources cited at the end of articles
Some college teachers ask students to submit their course-related papers to Wikipedia
Some college teachers ask students to edit Wikipedia articles related to their course

Attempts to improve on Wikipedia

Citizendium - Contributors must identify themselves but no credentials are needed; articles may be edited only by approved editors whose credentials are provided
Scholarpedia - Only invited academics contribute articles
Veropedia - Selected articles from Wikipedia that are deemed to be "accurate"; articles cannot be edited by the general public

Other Wikimedia Foundation ventures:

Conclusion

Wikipedia may be used for random "facts" and as a starting point to find topics for class assignments

References

Educause. (2007). 7 things you should know about Wikipedia. Educause. Retrieved January 03, 2008 from http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7026.pdf

Alexa. (2008). Top sites. Retrieved January 18, 2008 from http://www.alexa.com/site/ds/top_500

Encyclopedia Britannica. (2006). Fatally flawed: Refuting the recent study on encyclopedic accuracy by the journal Nature. Retrieved January 09, 2008 from
http://corporate.britannica.com/britannica_nature_response.pdf

Cohen, N. (2007, February 21). A history department bans citing Wikipedia as a research source. New York Times. Retrieved January 03, 2008 from Lexis-
Nexis database.

De Rosa, C., Cantrell, J., Hawk, J., & Wilson, A. (2006). College students' perceptions of libraries and information resources. Dublin, OH: Online
Computer Library Center. Retrieved December 21, 2007 from http://www.oclc.org/reports/perceptionscollege.htm

Forte, A., & Bruckman, A. (2005). Why do people write for Wikipedia? Incentives to contribute to open-content publishing. Retrieved December 28, 2008 from
http://jellis.org/work/group2005/papers/forteBruckmanIncentivesGroup.pdf

Giles, J. (2005, December). Internet encyclopaedias go head to head. Nature, 438(15), 900-901. Retrieved January 06, 2007 from Academic Search Premier
database.

Hayek, F. A. (1945). The use of knowledge in society. American Economic Review, 35(4), 519-530. Retrieved January 17, 2008 from JSTOR database.

Lanier, J. (2006). Digital maoism: The hazards of the new online collectivism. Edge: The Third Culture. Retrieved January 02, 2008 from
http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/lanier06/lanier06_index.html

Rainie, L., & Tancer, B. (2007). Pew/Internet data memo. Retrieved November 20, 2007 from http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Wikipedia07.pdf

Shiff, S. (2006, July 31). Know it all. New Yorker, 82(23), 36-43. Retrieved January 02, 2008 from Academic Search Premier database.

Wales, J. (2007). Testimony before U. S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs. Retrieved January 11, 2007 from
http://hsgac.senate.gov/_files/121107Wales.pdf

---. (2007, April 2). 10 questions. Time, 169(14), 6.

---. (2006, June 23). Citing Wikipedia. Chronicle of Higher Education, 52(42), A39.

Waters, N. L. (2007). Why you can't cite Wikipedia in my class. Communications of the ACM, 50(9), 15-17. Retrieved January 05, 2008 from
Business Source Premier database.

Wells, H. G. (1937). The idea of a permanent world encyclopedia. Retrieved January 07, 2008 from https://sherlock.sims.berkeley.edu/wells/world_brain.html

Joe Fernandez,
Humanities & Social Sciences Librarian
Raymond H. Fogler Library
University of Maine
Orono, ME 04469

Revised: 01/23/2008