Wikipedia: Reflections on Use and Acceptance in Academic Environments | Ariadne: Web Magazine for Information Professionals

Use the link to access the full text from the July, 2012 issue of Ariadne. The article opens as follows: “Wikipedia has become internationally known as an online encyclopaedia ('The Free Encyclopedia'). Developed by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger and launched in 2001 it has, to date, editions in 285 languages. Wikipedia is but one subset of the Web-based applications known as 'wikis'. The original wiki (as wikiwikiweb) was developed by Ward Cunningham in the 1990s as the least complex way of rapidly sharing and communicating 'information'. Wiki is Hawaiian for 'quick'; repeating the word is equivalent to adding 'very'. The significance of a wiki is that it can be added to, and be edited by, its users. Many specific types of 'wiki', for local or international use, have been developed within this software platform. Wales and Sanger's contribution, developed from a fore-runner, 'Nupedia'. However, although Nupedia had free content (that is, free cultural work), it had a complex vetting and review system for articles and Wales wanted something easier to add to and contribute to. Wikipedia was the result. If a word or phrase is 'googled' a searcher for information (if not wisdom) may well find that the Wikipedia entry comes high in the search engine's list. This ranking is subject to the algorithms used rather than the accuracy of the Wikipedia entry... Wikipedia is clearly a much-used resource in the world at large, but its use can induce apparent contempt in some academic circles. A sociological/anthropological study of the reasons many academics seem to despise, or ban it, from students use [1] would be interesting. Students may be told not to use it; yet many people, students and academics, do find it useful. Perversely perhaps, some users correct or add new entries to increase Wikpedia's range, depth, accuracy and utility (termed 'Wikipedians' in Wikimedia circles). 'Some people' here includes those who are not academics and perhaps who have no aspirations to be so, but does this mean their contributions are automatically less valuable? In this article I shall explore what the use of Wikipedia might mean for developing information and digital literacies in the Higher and Further Education domains [2][3]... Given the general academic reticence mentioned above, it was perhaps surprising that that the Geological Society of London (The 'Geol Soc' or GSL) organised a workshop in late March 2012 to encourage Fellows to write or edit Wikipedia entries [4]. Sixteen Fellows and colleagues from the Royal Society of Chemistry (across the court-yard at Burlington House in Piccadilly, London) met, together with members of Wikimedia UK to learn more about becoming a 'Wikipedian'...”