Wiki Wiki's Wild!

I spent some time searching different topics that I am familiar with on Wikipedia. The topic that I read all the way through was for "filmmaking." I did not find any inaccuracies and was impressed with the technical terms used in the description.

I realize that the Wiki study showed that it is a reliable source to investigate any topic further, but the idea of ANYONE allowed to write collaboratively makes me nervous. We have talked a lot in class about being cognizant of the fact that the world wide web allows people to put just about anything out there. We talked about evaluating websites to see how valid and scholarly they seemed at a glance. This is another example of trusting that someone else isn't steering you the wrong way. I have known about Wikipedia, and I am intrigued by the idea, but I would never use this website as a reference in a scholarly paper.

As an English major, I appreciate that Wikipedia embraces the idea of collaboratively learning. I would encourage others to participate in this writing, but also tell them to get a second source if they are taking information from Wikipedia.