Wikipedia + pinch of salt

Lots of information on the Internet is unreliable. It seems to be widely acknowledged. Wikipedia doesn’t hide the fact that ‘anyone can edit’ its pages, and I think that as long as we bear this in mind and think critically about what we find, Wikipedia is a very useful resource. Wikipedia has introduced me to all sorts of obscure ‘facts’ very quickly and in an accessible format. I much prefer it to the Encyclopedia Britannica, because I don’t need to log in (and spend time looking for my library card number), because the entries are often more detailed, because it generally displays notes, citations and links on the same page (which makes further research easy) and because there are lots more references to brand new popular culture. In fact, better than all of this I think Wikipedia, through being open about the way its entries are compiled, encourages readers to get into the habit of thinking about authority over information and the validity of what we read and this really should be applied generally. Top publishers print new books which tell us misleading things all the time; when I was little my mother bought me a new Usborne book on Shakespeare which tried to tell me the House of York was represented by the red rose; obviously I was outraged and as a proud Yorkshire girl (age 11) wrote to them immediately to let them know how wrong they were!
I have decided not to edit a Wikipedia page today because I can’t think of or find an entry that I feel would really benefit from my input. I have, however, had a good look at the history and discussions for a number of topics. The discussions are intriguing! I intend to spend more time looking at these in future. It’s encouraging to see lots of nit-picking; the ‘anyones’ who have edited the entry on Rasputin seem to be really quite pedantic. One reader has complained that travelled has been misspelt. Another explains that this word is spelt differently in America and Britain. Interestingly, it seems the British English spelling has remained. A different reader suspects a spot of plagiarism. I noticed that this article is now locked (i.e. it cannot be edited by anyone anymore). This prompted me to find out about Wikipedia administrators (those with the power to lock) and I discovered to my surprise, that they too are volunteers (not employees of Wikipedia) who apparently have to have ‘considerable experience’ and have ‘gained the general trust of the community’. I like Wikipedia even more now!