I don’t know if you’ve noticed this consciously, but when you do almost any search on Google or Yahoo or Ask.com these days, one of the first results is very likely to be from the Wikipedia.
If you haven’t heard of Wikipedia, that’s OK, there are tons of things we haven’t heard of in your profession or discipline, either. However, in the world of Internet search “there’s battle lines being drawn – nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong,” as the Buffalo Springfield used to sing.
At this week’s Web Search University in Washington D.C., there were quotes from the research experts like “I thought I’d never say this, but I now use Wikipedia regularly,” while others were not always so kind. Everyone seems to have an opinion. Thomas Friedman, in his book The World is Flat was very complimentary about this collaborative encyclopedia. Interviews like “Will Wikipedia mean the end of Traditional Encyclopedias?” can be found easily with a Google search. And, anyone doing even a little research about Wikipedia will find it hard not to run across the name, John Seigenthaler.
Sheryl and I will be doing a presentation about Internet search and study skills for Professor Daniel Connolly’s Denver University class, Business 1040, next week.
Here’s a pre-work assignment the students have for our upcoming class. Esther Gil, the Business and Economics Reference Librarian at DU helped us craft it. The students kinda’ have to do the assignment, but anyone reading this post can chime in. There’s a place to comment, or leave your answer to the assignment below this post. We welcome all comments:
Assignment for BUS 1040 Section 9
For this assignment, determine whether you agree or disagree with the following statement:
Wikipedia is a reliable resource for serious researchers.
Quote at least three sources to support your conclusions using the following tools, based on the starting letter of your last name:
A-F – Use Business Source Premier
G-M – use Google News
N-R – use Google Scholar
S-Z – use Poynter Online (www.poynter.org)
Have fun everyone!
Webdevelopment Technologies 
So I want to know does any body else use wikipedia and what for?
what was the most informatibve artical you found there?
What was the wierdest one you found?
I use wikipedia mostly durring my lunch time at work to just read up on stuff. the most informative artical I found was on the mineing and refineing
process for copper (because I learned about the job I have, and got to show off to co-workers ;p) the most interesting was probably on cheese witch I
actualy e-mailed to my self so I could finish reading it after work.
oh well, got wiki?
Wikipedia is the key to most success online, when it comes to collabritive content adding. I have spent many hours writing articles for Jimmy Wales and am very happy with this project. I am based in Seminole FL close to the wikipedia offices in St Petersburg. I love contributing!
Happy New Year Bloggers!