Week 7, thing 16: Wikis

I really like wikis. I think the whole concept is fun. It's not just a quick and easy way to find out about things without doing a lot of in depth research, but it's also a great place to start if you do plan on doing a lot of in depth research. I'm familiar with Wikipedia, and again I think it's a great place to start if you want to know about someone or something. However, there are drawbacks and you do have to be careful. Recently there was someone in the news who I didn't know much about. So I thought great, I'll just get a brief overview of this person's life from wikipedia. As I began to read it became obvious that someone had made up lies about this person, and after a while I began to wonder what was true and what wasn't. So while wikipedia is a handy resource, and probably fairly accurate, I wouldn't trust it completely. While doing this excercise, I found out that there's a lot of really cool wiki related stuff available on the web. Some of the library's highlighted have really done an excellent job of presenting these to their patrons. There's links to internet safety tips, math resources, best reference web sites, free medical resources, even a link to what song was number one on the day you were born! With wiki, the possibilities and benefits are endless. On the other hand, as it was pointed out, there has to be some way of keeping things under control (never an easy thing). If not, hackers and those who thrive on hurting others can cause problems.