Week 3

From this week’s reading of Born Digital and reading a few discussion posts it seems that a lot of people are focusing on Wikipedia. I think what Paulfrey and Gasser were trying to get at was how incredible it was that one website can get individuals so interested they are willing to give them their time and effort for free to edit these pieces of information. Yes, that is great and the creator of Wikipedia does deserve much more than a pat on the back for that one because I know it is a very commonly used site, but I have to agree with some of the discussion post I have read that go against Wikipedia as being credible. As it says in the book, individuals are allowed to go in and edit the information which is posted; the only problem I have with it is one personal experience from high school. When I was in high school my friends and I looked up our school on Wikipedia. What we found was a rant from one of the editors bashing the school, and naming names of girls and teachers they did not like, accusing these people of outrageous acts. That was the day I decided to stop using Wikipedia as a credible source. Of course the post was taken down after word got out, but just from seeing that posted as the “definition” of our high school turned me the other way. Not everyone out there is kind enough to put up the correct information and they only use it as a creative way to mess with its users.