Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Assignment 9

Wikipedia, probably the number one source used to find information about anything and everything, but can you really trust it? If you answer yes, Virgil Griffith might change your mind. The information provided by Wikipedia may be edited by anyone, even anonymously. This has huge impacts for it's readers and users. The information you are receiving may be manipulated or even deleted, to benefit those that the information is about. Politicians, Congress, even the CIA, have all been found guilty of editing information to benefit them. Wal Mart and a voting machine company, Diebold, have also been identified as doing this.

What does all this mean? It means the public is being deceived. It is hard to make judgement or form opinions about issues, politicians, or companies you might want to support or not support, if you a getting something other than the truthful facts. In essence, it is another way society is being manipulated into buying someone else's agenda.

I feel the fact that anyone can edit anything on Wikipedia, undermines their credibility hugely. I personally, will cross reference information from that source and not just take it at face value. Also, with the invention of tools like Wikipedia Scanner, that find the IP address of anyone making edits, it is possible to see if the information you are reading is genuine. I feel Wikipedia is still a good source of information, it just depends now, on what your looking up. If you are using Wikipedia to make decisions on who you are voting for or if you want to support a certain organization, I feel you should use more than one source and background check the information you are receiving.

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