Reading Assignment 4

“Can WIKIPEDIA Ever Make the Grade?”

As Wikipedia’s popularity has grown so has the criticism towards the online encyclopedia where anyone can add information. Many professors and experts are skeptical of the information that is available through Wikipedia, so one professional sought ought and purposely added false information to the sight. Mr.Halavais used a pseudonym to add thirteen false errors, some plausible and some odd facts to see if the Wikipedia community would catch the errors. In less than three hours all of his false claims had been deleted from the website and he was asked not to add anymore false information. If Wikipedia continues to do a good job of editing the information that is added to the site then why do scholars still have sour feelings towards the site? Wikipedia can give scholars the chance to spread their knowledge to others, but I feel that scholars do not want credible information available for free. Scholars still want to publish their articles in academic journals and charge high prices for the articles through subscription to the journals or the databases that provide the articles digitally. Scholars should be honored for their work, but they should also want to share their knowledge with the world and not consider themselves better than a website that is just trying to provide a wide variety of truthful and useful information. Scholars become distained when a “common” person can alter or edit their post which they provide Wikipedia. However, Wikipedia continues to grow and be successful and if scholars chose not to participate in the growth of Wikipedia the site will still continue to provide credible information for free to the public. Providing such information for free is incredible with the digital divide and other limitations plaguing access to credible information.