Wikipedia

I have had some experience with Wikipedia. I mean I’m not the type of person to open up my browser and go straight to Wikipedia just to see what I can find, but if there is a particular topic that I would like to learn more about, I feel like that is the place to go. There is such a variety of explanations for every topic and it makes me better-rounded within that topic. I am not confined to one person’s opinion or set of facts. When I attended Simpson College, my Humanities professor assigned us to create our own post on Wikipedia for some book that we had just read. As far as I can remember, the book was a little on the boring side, but the fact that in the end I would have to come up with my own explanation for part of it really made me focus on what I was reading. I was able to contribute a logical post to the Wiki article on that book. I have no idea if what I wrote was kept on the site, but it was really fun to say that I published something to a major site on the internet.

Lessig made a great point that something like Wikipedia can conquer expertise. He talked about how in 2000 NASA asked amateurs to help with the Mars Mapping Project. The volunteer participants were asked to help identify the locations of craters, the age of craters, and other geological formations. As it turned out, the non-scientifically trained volunteers were very successful in their findings because they were able to relay this information faster than a single worker or the spacecraft. Yes, this experiment could have backfired and random people could have turned in a bunch of BS, but it didn’t because the people who participated did it because it was something that they were interested in. With all of these people coming together to help gather that information, one can never point a finger at a single person and say, “this person did all of this work so therefore they are the only ones who know how it is done.” Wikipedia eliminates giving all of the glory to one person because it is a cohesive project.

Today, I think people are more willing to give up their time, just as long as they can benefit from it. From the article, Bilton described the woman who spends hours each day filtering through various articles on the internet only so she can share them on one of the social networks she belongs to. Doing this makes her happy and is fulfilling to her social needs. I most certainly do this. I spend hours each day on Facebook, most of the time when I probably should be doing homework. Facebook is somewhat relaxing for me and it sometimes feels like I’m in a completely different world when I’m logged in. For example, tonight, I got home from teaching dance and before I could start my homework, I said to myself, “okay 20 minutes of Facebook then I’ll start my homework.” I guess I am easily distracted, but I think it makes doing my homework a little less stressful because I can always take a break from it and “get away.” I can also relate to this in my experiences with dance. I am a teacher now so I do get paid for my time at the studio, but I do not get paid to spend full weekends at a dance competition all day long just to see two of my girls perform one dance. I do it because I love it and would rather give up my time doing it than not.