Wikipedia

 ACTIVITY #1

What is Wikipedia?

Wikipedia is a multilingual, web-based encyclopedia project, operated by the Wikimedia Foundation, a nonprofit organization.

How would you answer the question posed in this piece “How reliable can a source be when anyone can edit it?”? 
The problem with Wikipedia is that it only works in practice. In theory, it can never work. More seriously, they put their faith in the wisdom of crowds, believing that by having many people watching what appears there, errors and vandalism will be weeded out, sooner rather than later.

Who do the creators of Wikipedia place their trust in when it comes to weeding out misinformation?

wisdom of crowds

 Why did founder Larry Sanger leave Wikipedia?

Mr.Sanger left Wikipedia, believing that it should give more authority to experts.

 What would abuse or vandalism look like on a Wikipedia page? 

 It would be highlighted in red.

What do the statistics quoted in the third paragraph of this piece reveal? 

That Wikipedia is trying to make the people who speak a different language to be able to use Wikipedia too. Thanks to Google searches listing Wikipedia entries they are in the top 10 most  visited sites on the internet.

 Why do you think Wikipedia is so successful?

I think Wikipedia is so successful because the people on the team know their stuff which allows for Wikipedia to be knowledgeable.

 Why might Wikipedia’s creators not want to accept advertising?

If they have advertising then some companies would see it and be like I want to give out a donation to them but Wikipedia doesn't allow donations. They probably think if they accept advertising then that is like a donation.

 How does Wikiscanner help increase the reliability of Wikipedia entries?

Wikiscanner quickly exposed examples of self-interested editing by prominent businesses and governments around the world.

ACTIVITY #2

In everyday life, I use Wikipedia. I use Wikipedia because if I am trying to learn more about something I just type it in and Wikipedia would give me more information about a particular subject.

I wasn't allowed to use Wikipedia in my school. They actually banned it from all computers because it wasn't a reliable source. But when I was reading about the 4 ways to use Wikipedia it really opened up my eyes because Wikipedia sounds like it is really easy to use.