A multilingual, Web-based encyclopedia project, operated by the Wikimedia Foundation, a nonprofit organization.
b. How would you answer the question posed in this piece “How reliable can a source be when anyone can edit it?”?
According to this article, it only works in practice, it never works in theory. They put their faith in the "wisdom of crowds," which they think will weed out the non valid information.
c. Who do the creators of Wikipedia place their trust in when it comes to weeding out misinformation?
The many people watching what appears on the site.
d. Why did founder Larry Sanger leave Wikipedia?
He believed that it should give more authority to experts
e. What would abuse or vandalism look like on a Wikipedia page?
It would look like the rest of the information. Unless the abuse is so crazy that it stands out, it would be hard to tell the difference.
f. What do the statistics quoted in the third paragraph of this piece reveal?
That Wikipedia is a fast growing, global website. It's validity seems greater thanks to Google showing their site in many searches.
g. Why do you think Wikipedia is so successful?
I think it's successful because in large part to what was said in the last question. Every time you Google something, a Wikipedia page of is one of the first things that are listed. Wikipedia pages usually have a fair amount of information, whether or not it's true is another issue. They layout of the page in general also gives off a "professional" look to it, which gives the researcher confidence in the site just from appearance.
h. Why might Wikipedia’s creators not want to accept advertising?
If it's not broke, don't fix it. They seem to have a good thing going. Their only expense is a $5,000 a month payment, while bringing with $3 million per year. They currently only have 10 employees, and with more funding , they may feel the need to hire more people. Like I said, everything seems to be working well for them, so if it's not broke, don't fix it.
i. How does Wikiscanner help increase the reliability of Wikipedia entries?
It allows the IP addresses of anonymous editors of the site to be checked. It makes it easier for the editors to expose the abuse on their pages.
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