Virgil Griffith, a graduate student at the California Institute of Technology, developed a scanner that will allow tracking of the many contributors and changes to the online encyclopedia, Wikipedia. Wikipedia has a massive amount of information on a massive amount of topics, which can be contributed to or edited by just about anyone. Nicholas Thompson, a Senior Editor of Wired magazine stated, "Wikipedia has one hundred times the information as a regular encyclopedia at ninety percent accuracy." Mr. Griffith's scanner has shown a variety of interesting changes to topics, many times by the subject or someone close to the subject of the topic. So, how accurate can something be if anyone can go in and change the information to suit them?
For myself, the fact that Wikipedia is available to anyone who can contribute, change, delete, add, embellish, or falsify the information makes it very unreliable. I don't believe I would use it to find concrete information on any subject that I would need to cite or document. It is just too "iffy" a proposition when a good grade or anything else of importance is riding on it. I have found, however, that Wikipedia is a "good jumping-off place." It is very much worth accessing it to start a project to get initial information or ideas. I would, of course, always want to back up the information obtained there by checking other sources.
Good start Cinnamon. Where is your post for Mr. McClung?
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