Photo: Flickr user lifeontheedge

Monday, May 01, 2006

Good email debate between Wales and a conservative commentator about neutrality, etc.

ROBERT COX [after arguing that people like his son could trust wikipedia too much]: I did ask my son whether he was aware of the editing feature of Wikipedia and, to my surprise, he said yes.


A lot of the angst about Wikipedia involves the expectation that people (especially students, who rely on it heavily) will take it as gospel. But as Cox found out, young people are more likely to understand how wikipedia works, not less, because they haven't spent decades with older editorial structures. (Third-worlders are another group who will likely rely on wikipedia disproportionately. They're used to distrusting what they hear from authorities.)

No comments: