In Wikipedia We Trust
In "Lessons of Wikipedia", Zittrain introduces the theory that when humans are in situations that are heavily regulated, our behavior adjusts to actions based on reward and punishment by an arbitrary external authority, rather than an intrinsic motivation to maintain a better world that we help to construct. When rules and regulations are lessened, basic order can be achieved because people decide to respect limits and other people with the absence of enforced rules. His ideas describe Wikipedia—when individuals see themselves as part of a greater whole, each feels responsible for maintaining order; they are a connected community under a common goal.The Internet, since its creation, has functioned as an encyclopedia in and of itself. Expert and amateur writers and bloggers are free to make public whatever information they want, and when someone does a search on a particular topic, a wide variety of information may come up. Search engines function as an encyclopedia written by many authors, not just one or a few, and this gives searchers the privilege to pick what they want to read. Wikipedia's foundation is based on verkeersbordvrij (the idea that unsafe is safe, or more simply put, less rules and regulations lead to a public mass effort to maintain order and high standards), dialogue between readers, writers, and editors where alterations can be explained, and a team of core editors that serve as the overseers.
In "Editing Out Obscenity: Wikipedia and Writing Pedagogy", Hood portrays Wikipedia as a "collaborative writing endeavor" that has great potential as a compromise of knowledge and opinions of many people. Because Wikipedia articles are constantly being edited and monitored for vandalism, over time the only result is that their quality would improve. Wikipedia, unlike other encyclopedias, places value on the process of writing and editing, not on the final product. Wikipedia is all about achieving harmony and solidarity when working in concordance with others readers and writers to fully inform the public on a topic and to give them the best information possible.
In "Integrating the American Mind" by Gates, he explains that there is a problem with he American teaching curriculum, that students do not learn about other cultures and their histories because high schools and colleges are focused on European and American societies, with America as the perfect example of how a society should be since the Greeks, in a similar way to how Christians looks to Jesus as an example. "We need to reform our entire notion of core curricula to account for the comparable eloquence of the African, the Asian, the Latin American, and the Middle Eastern traditions, to prepare our students for their roles in the twenty-first century as citizens of a world culture, educated through a truly human notion of the humanities" (Gates 346). Wikipedia offers students and individuals alike to do so because it covers such an immense, broad array of subject matter and international history down to the most obscure, rarely known cultures.
Wikipedia is an amazing resource for many reasons but most of all because it functions as a group effort that is maintained by readers and writers who want to see the overall education of Wiki users by offering them the most accurate information possible. It's a resource that trusts its contributors who want nothing more than to contribute to the spread of knowledge.
Though Wikipedia is based on verkeersbordvrij, I think the presence of regulation means it isn't entirely. Zittrain's belief that less rules means more order does seem to hold true. But this doesn't mean rules go out the door. Editors exist to protect the community from participants who don't follow basic principles, and who don't work to achieve the goals of the group. Yet, there is still an open invitation to participate in the overall objective.
ReplyDeleteThat objective, though, is the final product. The objective is to achieve a highly accurate final product that's thoroughly supported. Though the collaboration of a multitude of readers and writers is one of the base principles of Wikipedia, it is not the primary goal. It is instead a basis used to achieve its goal, and perhaps a defining characteristic.