Sonntag, 20. Mai 2012

My Friend Wiki


I really enjoyed discussing the controversies of wiki last time in class. I think it is ironic that although most academic institutions do not allow students to use it, profs will informally recommend it or even use it themselves in presentations! Image you are someone who hasn’t been to uni, has a normal 9-5pm job and wants to quickly gain accurate information on a certain topic..wiki I think in this case is a great option. Sure, people can write a lot of inaccurate information on it, but with the high usage I am convinced that false information would not stay on the site very long. As Mr Tantner showed use last time with the archived wiki page with the incorrect date..this  got changed fairly rapidly.
With regard to the texts I support the view of Klaus Graf: is it not a good idea to cite wiki for an essay or something as it is not very credible and as he writes unstable.  Surely Jimmy Wales wouldn’t have a bad word to say against his own brainchild?! I am impressed to read about his own educational background, I don’t care about his German skills however or when it’s his birthday.  It would appear though that for the German-speaking world wiki fills a gap. I often have conversations here with friends and they have to quote me the exact, correct, most precise piece of information. They have this look in their face like the world might end if they quote me false information. Brits often say ‘Sorry, I don’t know’. I rarely here these words here and so I can see how wiki fills a gap for the perfection the German-speaking world aims to achieve.  The last article by Maren Lorenz also largely raises the negative side of wiki.
Yes, I am going to continue to use wiki as a primary reference source…quote it in a bibliography…NEVER!!!

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