Wikipedia.org

In the wide world of the internet once every blue moon something turns up every so often that becomes the “in” thing. Quick examples of this are Youtube, Google, Myspace, Digitalspy. Overnight seemingly these things turn up, and before you know it everyone is using them. And for some people these sites are the first and last place to look. Wikipedia has become one of these sites.

In 2001 Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger brought Wikipedia an online encyclopaedia to the internet. The great love people had for the internet meant that people were searching for information from the internet alone, rather than visiting libraries. This thirst for knowledge gave Wales and Sanger the idea for Wikipedia. Because in this big wide world information changes on a daily basis, Wikipedia was designed so that it could be updated at the drop of a hat; a voluntarily run website Wikipedia relies on its users to keep the site fresh and up to date.

So say your doing some research on a subject lets say Boris Yeltsin; you time in his name in the search box and your presented with a variety of detail this includes a quick fact box then a variety of headings. It shows you his past, his present life and his achievements. Now at the time of writing this Boris Yeltsin died 48 hours ago, so if for example you arrived on the page you could update the information to include details of his death. Once updated the page goes “live” immediately.

I know what your thinking, how can this always show the truth, in short it cannot. However there are a wide range of administrators that check pages that are being added or updated. This appears in an online log, which they or you can see. If for example they find that the space is being used for advertising, or just plain nonsense; they can put a note on the page to say the page is being considered for speedy deletion. This gives the author of the page the opportunity (if what they are doing is genuine) to edit the page to comply with Wiki-law. This will usually require links to sources legitimising your information input.

Also there is the risk of vandalism, if a area of the site is deliberately messed up by a user their account is terminated and the page is rectified to its original form. So if for example you chose to change George W. Bush’s entry to say instead of American President to Liar, you could, but you could guarantee that the page you altered is amended double quick. If certain subjects are frequently vandalised the Wikipedia admin put a lock on that page which means that only admin can update it, new information has to be added via the “Talk” pages.

So say you search for something on Wikipedia and you find that a search proves fruitless. However you have some information that you can back up with links etc. that you would like to add. Firstly you make the page, there is a very complicated looking Wiki language that you use for entering detail. But you can make this less complicated, and less menacing. I for example wanted to add something about a year ago and was so put off by the Wiki language I just forgot about it. However recently I wanted to add something, and felt that the information I had was crucial to being included in Wikipedia. I made an initial entry in basic text like writing a word document, and then I submitted the document. Within minutes an administrator had picked up my entry and had posted a note saying that the entry was being considered for speedy deletion. It explained that if you used the term {{Hangon}} this will hold the page back from deletion until such time as I can back up my entry. Its at this point I headed to the entries “Talk” pages where I asked the question how do I enter hyperlinks etc. The admin quickly responded to me explaining how to do a hyperlink to make the article genuine. A little copy and pasting and I had inserted a link to another Wiki article as well as the site I sought out my information from. The next time I visited the page the speedy deletion sign was gone and it was considered a genuine article.

While 90% of the time Wikipedia is bang on the money for accuracy there is that 10% chance that the information is false or outdated. That’s why it’s so important to keep things updated. I remember a short time ago hearing of the death of actress Adrienne Shelley, in the search for more information I fell onto Wikipdedia, while everyone else was saying her death was suicide, Wikipedia stated that she had been murdered, and went into great detail as to how and why. Three days later the rest of the world media discovered that the Wikipedia article was true.

Wikipedia is possibly the best online resource for information; the real genuine articles are always backed up by sources away from the site. So it’s a fair bet that your reading the true state of things. So if your studying modern art, heard a big word that you have no idea what it means, missed an crucial episode of your favourite soap, or trying to solve Doctor Who’s three year riddle. Make Wikipedia the first place you search.