3.3: Wikipedia- Below the Surface (Video-Duckett, et al.)
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Wikipedia- Below the Surface Video Transcript
00:00 Wikipedia has quickly become the world's largest encyclopedia
00:03 and one of the most visited websites.
00:05 But how does information get into Wikipedia in the first place?
00:09 There's a lot to discover when you scratch beneath the surface.
00:12 Wikipedia is a wiki, a special kind of website
00:15 that allows many people to contribute to the content.
00:18 The word wiki means "quick" in Hawaiian.
00:22 The name comes from the fact that on the most basic level a wiki is a quick way
00:25 to make a web page.
00:27 Wikis help people collaborate online.
00:29 This means that a group of people can contribute information to a wiki
00:33 without seeing each other face to face.
00:35 Although Wikipedia is the most well-known and ambitious wiki,
00:38 there are plenty of other specialized wikis that exist for collaborative research and just
00:42 about anything else you can imagine.
00:44 Many wikis are limited to specific groups of people, but Wikipedia allows anyone in the world
00:50 to create an account, sign in, and then contribute to the information on a topic.
00:55 That includes you.
00:56 A Wikipedia page is set up with several sections: the Article,
01:01 Discussion, Edit, and History tabs.
01:04 The information you read in Wikipedia is on the "Article" tab.
01:08 This is where the voices of many different volunteer authors merge together
01:11 into an overview of the subject that anyone in the world can read.
01:15 On a Wikipedia page - like this page on Gun Politics - the authors work together
01:20 to present background information on the topic.
01:23 A good page will also include references to other information sources so readers know
01:27 where the knowledge is coming from.
01:29 These references point people to information that's been published in books,
01:33 newspapers,journals,and on websites.
01:37 Wikipedia has some key guidelines to help the volunteer authors.
01:40 The first is "No Original Research."
01:43 Unlike books and journal articles where researchers publish their original ideas,
01:47 experiments, and theories, Wikipedia provides background information gathered
01:52 from information sources published elsewhere.
01:55 Additionally, Wikipedia's guidelines emphasize
01:58 that all content should present a "Neutral Point of View."
02:01 This is always a challenge, especially for controversial topics and many pages
02:06 in Wikipedia have warning messages indicating that the content is biased.
02:10 One of the most important aspects of Wikipedia is that the content can evolve over time.
02:16 When there are many different authors creating, updating, and deleting content,
02:20 the information might be in flux.
02:22 But one benefit of the shifting nature of Wikipedia is that people from all
02:26 over the world can contribute to what is known and understood about a topic.
02:30 In fact information can be developed in Wikipedia more quickly for an event
02:33 as it is happening than newspapers can publish it.
02:37 At the same time, since Wikipedia's content can be in flux, authors might change the information
02:43 to reflect their personal views and introduce bias.
02:46 As a result, it can be challenging to keep a neutral point of view
02:49 when many people are offering their ideas to the content.
02:52 It's clear that authors will bring their opinions
02:55 to a Wikipedia page whether they intend to or not.
02:58 In the Discussion tab of a Wikipedia page you will often find lively debate about the content.
03:08 Authors leave notes for each other about the changes they've made to the content
03:11 and they debate about how the information should be presented.
03:14 This is where you do see individual voices and, many times,
03:18 they've got definite opinions to share.
03:20 So unlike the main article page, the Discussion page is the for personal opinion.
03:25 By looking through the Discussion, you can sometimes learn just as much
03:28 about the sensitive areas of a topic as you could by checking the main content.
03:32 In the History tab, you can see every change that's been made to a Wikipedia page
03:37 and some indication of who made it.
03:39 Sometimes it's a user name.
03:41 At other times you just see the IP address of the person's computer.
03:46 But who are they?
03:47 There are more than 75,000 active contributors to Wikipedia
03:53 and the number is growing all the time.
03:56 Additionally, Wikipedia has a few administrators who have higher editing powers.
04:01 These administrators can delete pages if the topic isn't considered important enough.
04:06 They can also flag pages with notes about the quality of the content.
04:10 One of the controversial aspects of Wikipedia is that it's impossible to tell anything
04:16 about the authors, including their level of expertise on a topic.
04:19 Someone might be the world's leading expert on a topic
04:22 or they might be your next-door neighbor who just has a strong opinion.
04:26 Wikipedia challenges the way some people define "expert" and it equalizes the opportunity
04:30 for all people to share what they know.
04:33 For some people loosening up the concept of who's an "expert" is a good thing.
04:37 For others, it's a threat to the accuracy and validity of information.
04:41 The fact that Wikipedia authors are anonymous makes the content different from books,
04:46 journals, magazines, and newspapers.
04:48 In these publications the author's name is on the line in terms
04:51 of the quality and the accuracy of their work.
04:54 These sources have gone through formal editing and peer review process
04:57 to assure the quality and accuracy of the information.
05:00 Wikipedia doesn't have this same kind of formal review process.
05:03 Instead, it relies on anonymous authors to keep each other in check so the content is presented
05:08 in a fair, neutral, and balanced way.
05:10 Sometimes it succeeds and sometimes it fails.
05:13 But how accurate is Wikipedia?
05:19 Well, in 2006 the journal Nature, an important science research journal, conducted a study.
05:25 It showed that the Encyclopaedia Britannica is only slightly more reliable
05:28 than Wikipedia when it comes to science topics.
05:31 When expert scientists reviewed fifty different topics,
05:34 Wikipedia averaged about four errors per entry.
05:36 Britannica averaged three.
05:38 But at the same time, other critics point
05:41 out that Wikipedia pages often point to insufficient references.
05:45 And Wikipedia itself cautions users that Wikipedia articles aren't complete
05:50 when they're first started, and they may contain false or debatable information.
05:54 In fact, some pages start out pretty biased before the volunteer authors can work towards
05:58 consensus and a neutral point of view.
06:01 So keep in mind that Wikipedia is an evolving information resource.
06:07 The information shifts and changes.
06:09 Beneath the surface is a thriving community of people who work together
06:13 to make information available on a topic, but it's impossible
06:16 to determine if they are experts.
06:19 Wikipedia is a jumping off point into other sources - like books,
06:22 articles, newspaper articles and websites.
06:26 Use it for background information, but dig deeper...and search wider too.