Saturday, February 9, 2008

Thing #10 Wikis (1)

I really like Wikipedia and use it all the time. One thing I like about it is that if you want to read something other than the "party line" or "accepted" biography for someone, wikipedia fits the bill. Lots of interesting private info is contained in a wikipedia entry--much of it true I'm thinking. Of course the downside is that someone could really mess up an entry by submitting lies or misinformation. But normally, someone else will come along to correct that info.

I also like how current Wikipedia can be. For instance I wanted to look up the female candidate of Pakistan and the page had a warning not to try to add anything to the Wiki because the topic was undergoing breaking news--in fact, Bhutto had just been assassinated and I'm assuming they wanted to wait to get the correct information before adding to the wiki information about her. I had just looked up the topic the day before and suddenly world events concerning her had changed.

It's better than a news headline or story because there is lots more background information than in an average news story.

I wouldn't as a librarian use only Wikipedia as a source, but I think it can be one valuable resource.

P.S. the video about wikis was very helpful and fun to watch. I like that guy. I'm off to look up some library wikis now.

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