HOW DOES WIKIPEDIA DO

IT?How exactly does Wikipedia keep

their posted sources of information as accurate as possible?

By: Group AJean BlackwellChristine GriesMaria ManchaKendra Pitre-BullockLynn Wolfe

THE ALCOVE: JIMMY WALES CREATOR OF WIKIPEDIA SPEAKS ABOUT HOW INFORMATION POSTED ON THE SITE IS RELIABLE (MOLARO, 2009).

WIKIPEDIA RELIABILITY WikiScanner is a tool created by Virgil

Griffith for searching anonymous Wikipedia edits by organizations (Silverman, 2007).

Anonymous is not what it used to be. Now with the advent of this wikiscanner tool anonymous postings can be traced back to the authors organization with the trace of the internet protocol (IP) which is as unique as a finger print.

The identification of the author has a tendency to lead to more factual data on the Wikipedia site.

BRITANNICA VERSUS WIKIPEDIA

In order to test its reliability, Nature conducted a peer review of scientific

entries on Wikipedia and the well-established Encyclopedia Britannica

(“Wikipedia survives research,“ 2005).

Only eight serious errors, such as misinterpretations of important concepts,

were detected in the pairs of articles reviewed, four from each encyclopedia, reported Nature (“Wikipedia survives

research,“ 2005).

But reviewers also found many factual errors, omissions or misleading

statements: 162 and 123 in Wikipedia and Britannica, respectively (“Wikipedia

survives research,“ 2005).

EDITING WIKI PAGES “Noveck points out that "participants

are accredited by members of the wiki community, who have a vested interest in preserving the quality of the work product, on the basis of their ongoing participation." On controversial topics that have been subject to disruptive editing, a wiki may restrict editing to registered users”(Noveck, 2007).