“Can Wikipedia Ever Make the Grade?” is an article about Wikipedia and its credibility. It discusses how some people slip false information into Wikipedia knowingly, while others edit statements that are completely false and they do not even have a clue that they are misguiding people. No matter the case, editors of Wikipedia are constantly inserting, editing, deleting, and justifying everything that is written in this online encyclopedia. The article states many different facts and examples of the discouragement of professors and scholarly intellectuals who do not like the idea of someone else being able to edit what they say about their area of interest. One writer went as far to say that a wrongfully accused individual was involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy, as well as his brother Bobby.
The article brought some interesting points to my mind, and I am glad I have the opportunity to think about them more often now. First of all, how credible are the sources that I use? An academic scholar who posts an article about his specific area of study, and then it gets demolished by an editor who may not be credible at all (other than what everyone else is saying). That is the kind of false information that is being provided through the almost 1.5 million entries in Wikipedia. Another point, why does a scholar want to post his knowledge on Wikipedia anyway? It seems to me that he would publish books, write in scholarly journals, or publish his findings in textbooks for students of the same field. I enjoyed the article and thought it was really cool that Mr. Halavais’ information was already corrected within three hours after he posted.
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