If I was asked by a teeacher to edit a page on wikipedia I would be very surprised. Although I know that anyone has the ability to edit a wikipedia page, I have never done so and would never even think about doing so. I use wikipedia often as a source for information about anything I need to know. I see wikipedia as a reliable sourse despite the fact that anyone is able to edit or post information. I trust the site to be screened before it is oficially available, and this screening seems to be very effective. I would be surprised that I was asked to edit a page because I do not think that I know something that is not already on wikipedia and I would not know what to edit. Editing wikipedia seem like it would have pretty major consequences for many people because so many people depend on it for accurate information, and it would be shocking to hear someone request that I change information that is on the site.
However, if I were going to edit a page on wikipedia I would edit one that I knew something about. I would be stuck though, and would not be able to decide if I wanted to add information that I know is correct or if I would rather change something and make it wrong just out of curiosity for how effective the screening process is. The first option would allow me to edit and provide information that I have learned and provide it to others. I would maybe edit something about Spain or bullfighting as I have firsthand knowledge about both and could give accurate information. The second option would be very interesting because I could test the system. I would change some information to something that I know is wrong just to see if it gets though the screening. IF it did, I would not rely on wikipedia for correct information in the future.
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I agree--I don't believe that I know any information on any topic that isn't already on Wikipedia, so I wouldn't know what to edit either. Because I use Wikipedia to get information so often, most of my knowledge consists of what is already there--I don't really know what to add on to any page.
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting how you may 'test' Wikipedia by purposefully changing part of an article. It would be a very interesting experiment to see how long it takes (if ever) to see when the error you imparted unto the article is reverted. I would say that if the error was corrected within a reasonable amount of time, you would be able to trust Wikipedia because it has pasted you own screening process.
ReplyDeletewell you can always look up on recent information on a subject and be the first to put it up. you can update on some popular culture pages, add some more information on listings, etc. Even if you don't know more about something there is alwyas room for updates
ReplyDeleteThe screening process is pretty good from what I have experience. I've tried changing things before just for kicks, and it was reverted pretty quickly. But I agree with changing something that you know about. There's no reason to do a bunch of extra research on something you don't care about to contribute to Wikipedia.
ReplyDeleteYour idea of editing is very similar to mine. However, I never realized what would happen if people actually believed this information and used it. I always figured that people would just totally discard this false information.
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