Since it has been nearly a year since my last update, and since I've already been making blog posts for Valonia, I thought it was only sensible I posted those ones of my blog posts over here. My first one was Love it. Change it. Leave it. Here comes my second blog post for Valonia. This time, it's on Wikipedia.
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As students, if you ever have to make a report or write a presentation in school, or even in college, chances are high that the very first link you open is the Wikipedia article on the topic. Isn't it?
Started in 2001, the website has quickly grown to one of the world's largest, ranking at 6th for the past few months.[1] With articles on literally almost everything, [2] Wikipedia is increasingly used by students and researchers alike as a primary source of information. But how is it written?
The short answer to that question is "By everyone". Yes, literally. The more detailed answer is that Wikipedia has a number of dedicated volunteers and an inbuilt policy structure that takes the best of every edit that is made, and aggregates it together to make the articles you see everywhere.
So basically what are these policies? While Wikipedia has literally hundreds of policies[Note 1], it eventually boils down to five basic ones, called the Five Pillars. [4]
In their order, they are-
1. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia
2. It is neutral
3. It is free, and anyone can edit it
4. Everyone respects each other
5. Rules arent carved in stone
Enough of the policies. What do they have to do with what I read? Literally everything. In Wikipedia, everything is decided by consensus, and everything you read, from whether Askai Chin is a part of India, to whether "Star Trek: Into Darkness" should have a colon, is affected by the same policies. [Note 2] Every editor either follows these policies, or gets blocked by the community.
So is it true that everyone can edit? Or do anyone who disagree with the "official version" simply get blocked? Yes, it's true that everyone can edit. Throughout the years, Wikipedia has seen editors across age barriers, academic backgrounds and nationalities collaborate. Experienced researchers often edit Wikipedia, and so do teenage students. And we're always searching for newer editors to join.
So what stops me from writing my name on the "List of Indian Billionaires"? Nobody is going to check that, will they? No, nobody stops you from doing that. But please don't. For one, nobody stops others from reverting you. And for the second, you'll be probably blocked immediately. After years of experience in dealing with such incidents, Wikipedia has an army of vandal-fighters and bots[5], who can efficiently check for any edits made in bad faith, and can revert you in just a moment's notice. They are so efficient that often Wikipedia reverts vandalism in a matter of minutes.
So how does Wikipedia manage it's quality? The way Wikipedia works is that every edit goes towards making the encyclopedia better. One person writes an article, and then another person good with editing fixes Grammar and other errors. Then someone else comes along, and adds another viewpoint on the article. Over time, the articles gets better and better. That's the point of collaborative writing, you get to keep the best of every edit made.
So what happens if I don't write to improve the article? Or if someone disagrees with me? Then we have our own ways to deal with disputes. When editors cannot mutually decide on a topic, the community weighs in, where other editors help judge the issue, based on which is the more balanced side, and whether it adheres to the policies required.
Is a traditional encyclopedia not better? Well, it depends. For example, Wikipedia has much more information, close to 60 times that of Brittanica.[6] Likewise, a research done by Nature in 2005 concluded that Wikipedia articles were almost as accurate as the corresponding ones in Britannica, indicating that the Wikipedia setup does work reasonably well. [7]
Want to edit Wikipedia? Feel free to join in. Create an account, and just start editing.
References
1. Alexa.com
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_to_Eye_(Taher_Shah_song)
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:RULESPAM
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Five_pillars
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:ClueBot
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Size_comparisons
7. "Internet encyclopaedias go head to head", Nature 438, Giles, 2005
Footnotes
1. So much so that it even has a rule about having too many rules. [3]
2. Obligatory xkcd reference http://xkcd.com/1167/
3. The text on this particular blog post are relased under a CC-by-SA license.
Coming soon - "Wikipedia - The not so free encyclopedia"
- From A Wikipedia Editor
