Wickipedia

Wikipedia is somewhat new to me. My daughter and I have used it to help with her homework. I just thought it was simply an on-line encyclopedia. I'm actually glad we had Wikipedia as this week's blog assignment. If you google a word for it's definition, the first site would typically be the Wikipedia definition page. This week's research has taught me that Wikipedia isn't 100% reliable. I didn't know that ANYONE could modify a definition.

Wikipedia IS appropriate for obtaining the BASIC definition of a GENERAL word. For example, Wikipedia's definition of a Pomeranian is reliable because it's definition (and additional information) isn't exactly debatable.

However, Wikipedia's BASIC definition for CONTROVERSIAL words such as Republican Party or Democratic Party would only be SOMEWHAT reliable. Definitions of controversial words would be worded in positive or negative ways depending on the political views of the one who posted the revision. Numerous edits can be found for Democratic and Republican Party! In my opinion, the open ability to edit Wikipedia definitions creates a way for debate.

From one extreme example to the other, Wikipedia is still a GREAT on-line encyclopedia tool. The ability of editing is useful for statistics that constantly change. When I was a kid, we had a set of World Book Encyclopedia's to refer to if needed. In fact, my Mom sold them for quite some time (she still has a set, too)! Good ole reliable was great to help with projects; however, after a year, some of the information was outdated and unreliable.