Wikipedia

Wikipedia is a multilingual, Web-based encyclopedia project, operated by the Wikimedia Foundation, a nonprofit organization. A source that anyone can edit can be reliable if the people editing it are experts on that specific topic. If just a random person that didn't know anything about that topic edited the information, then it would not be reliable. One of Wikipedia's defenders answered this question with,"The problem with Wikipedia is that it only works in practice. In theory, it can never work." The creators of Wikipedia place their trust in "wisdom of crowds," believing that by having many people watching what appears there, errors and vandalism will be weeded out, sooner rather than later. Larry Sanger left Wikipedia because he believed that he should give more authority to experts. Abuse and vandalism on a Wikipedia page would be in the form of misinformation and bias on a topic. The statistics reveal that Wikipedia is a major website and people all across the world get information from it. I think Wikipedia is so successful because it can be created or edited by anyone, therefore people feel more connected to it. Since it can be created by anyone, people can add what they think other people will need, or what other websites don't include. Wikipedia can be a one stop shop for information, you can get information and get references all in one place. Wikipedia's creators don't accept advertising because they rely on donations from visitors and other, indirect commerical efforts. They might not want to accept advertising because they are trying to inform people, not trying to sell products. Wikiscanner helps to increase the reliability of Wikipedia entries by allowing the IP address of anonymous editors of the site to be easily checked. This can quickly expose examples of self-interested editing by prominent businesses and governments around the world. Wikipedia is a wonderful starting place for research!