Wikipedia

What an interesting concept. After reading these articles and listening to the podcast about the Wikipedia, I am now questioning if anyone can trust what it says. Ever since Virgil Griffith created the Wikipedia Scanner, people have been questioning this reliable source of information. I know this is news to me, so I am sure that many people do not even know about this. Virgil Griffith is a grad student from Cal Tech that first became curious about the editing that was going on with Wikipedia. Virgil then created a scanner that allows people to trace back the IP address of who was editing or changing the Wikipedia entry. The Wikipedia has always allowed people or companies to edit or change any entries posted. After Virgil Griffith realized that Congress members’ offices had been editing their own entries, he got curious to see who else was editing entries. After creating this scanner, people are now able to trace back the editing to the companies that are doing it.

Diebold, a leading maker of voting machines, the FBI, Walmart, and a variety of politicians are editing and changing the Wikipedia entries about their companies. Is Wikipedia a reliable source of information? In one of the articles, it stated that children that are doing research on a certain topic should not just use Wikipedia for a reliable source of information. Students should also use another source of information to back up their findings. In my opinion, this makes me question the Wikipedia. I know that I will share this information with friends and family. Just as the podcast stated, I do think that this could possibly be lead to bettering the Wikipedia, but as of now, I am not so sure.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12823729