Wikipedia Article

a. What is Wikipedia?

Wikipedia is a "web-based encyclopedia" that anyone can edit or create topics in. 

b. How would you answer the question posed in this piece “How reliable can a source be when anyone can edit it?”

I don't think something that anyone can edit can be very reliable. There are many commercial businesses for example that would take advantage of this for promotion. Not everyone who edits a posting in Wikipedia is doing it for pure educational purposes.

c. Who do the creators of Wikipedia place their trust in when it comes to weeding out misinformation?

They place their trust in the masses or "the wisdom of the crowds".

d. Why did founder Larry Sanger leave Wikipedia?

He left because he thought Wikipedia should give more credit to experts than just average people.

e. What would abuse or vandalism look like on a Wikipedia page?

Someone could maybe post or edit an article to have vulgar or inappropriate language or topics. Or something that is blatantly untrue just to mess with people.

f. What do the statistics quoted in the third paragraph of this piece reveal?

They reveal that Wikipedia is used a lot and by many people. It’s a worldwide tool.

g. Why do you think Wikipedia is so successful?

I think it is successful because its easily accessible and is usually the first thing that pops up when you run a search topic through a search engine. Most people only go to the first 2 or 3 sites they see when they are looking for information and Wikipedia is usually one of them.

h. Why might Wikipedia’s creators not want to accept advertising?

Advertising may devalue the educational aspect of Wikipedia. If there are ad banners everywhere they will look more like an unreliable site and I believe that they have enough trouble with that already.

i. How does Wikiscanner help increase the reliability of Wikipedia entries?

It uncovered those editors to Wikipedia that had self-interests or interests for their company or business. Basically it helped eliminate some of the people that edited Wikipedia articles for non-educational purposes.