Wikipedia

In this book he talks about how Wikipedia has become not just a type of Encyclopedia, but a way to keep up with the news. The author talks about the Virginia Tech Massacre, I did a speech on that last year and Wikipedia was more helpful than any other source. Wikipedia had the names of all the victims as well as a detailed time line of the events and what times they happened. Many people do not think Wikipedia is a credible source but what I found very interesting is how close to or even they were on mistakes with the Encyclopedia Britannica.

I think they believe that Wikipedia will one day conquer the Encyclopedia. They discuss that reports for news are only getting one point of view when they report a story and on Wikipedia you can get many different sides so the story or event is very well detailed.

Another reason that I see that shows that Wikipedia could conquer expertise is the reasons for people doing it. When you are driven by money you often do not care about your quality of work as much as if you are doing it for yourself. Pro athletes a lot of the time won’t hustle on every play or give it their all on every play. I’m not saying all players, but a lot. A majority of those players hustled in college and high school because they were working for themselves to get somewhere and achieve something. They will get paid whether they jog or run. Yeah they could get fined, but people work a lot harder when they are doing something that they want to be proud of.

He says that people just like to do it. I do not edit material on Wikipedia, but I do enjoy going on line and reading about different events or people. It’s a pretty good way to keep up with events and the lives of famous people. When you enjoy something it doesn’t seem like work. Many people would see something like looking on a web page and editing material as work. If one enjoys that they do not see it as work it is a leisure activity. Even in the book Remix it is discussed that people enjoy maintaining Wikipedia.” Its contributors are motivated not by money, but by the fun or joy in what they do. Some find that joy because the result is something valuable to society. Others find that joy because there’s nothing better on television.”