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 Some of our collegiate professors tend to prohibit us from citing Internet resources as bases for assigned researches. Students today tend to scratch their heads for this entails digging into their vaults where lay their forgotten library ID’s. An argument is raised against the stairs of the Vath Library, cursing the hard process of finding the desired material.
Pro-technocratic activists are then roused advocating their aim of a “paperless society” wherein clickscan- encode takes the place of the blueprints. Students repel silently against their professors’ orders not because of laziness but to ease up their academic loads such as assignments, researchers, nursing care plans, theses and the like. The youth chose their easy access on information on the internet for it only demands an effort in buttons and clicks. It is comparably easier and more accessible than going up to the library and looking for references. DENOTING WIKIPEDIA As students, we could use every reference we have at hand – magazines, newspapers, encyclopedias, and the Microsoft Encarta to name only a few. Even these references are not enough to quench our thirst of new and useful knowledge. The Internet would just do that – in fact, it’s more that enough to fulfill our Educational requirements. With more than a million websites to exploreand counting – you can actually get lost in the intricate web of the cyberspace. Amidst this massive interconnectedness, there are websites called search engines that allows the users to enter a certain keyword pertaining to the subject they are searching for. We have yahoo.com, google.com, dogpile.com, msn.com as popular search engines. As the users press the enter button, in only about a fraction of second, there are about a million websites around the world matching their request. With these matches, the search engine arranges the search results from the most relevant to the least. The matches that top the list are mostly encyclopedia websites, commercial reference sites and university websites. We have the ever popular Wikipedia.org which is commonly found at the top 5 of the search results of search engines. PEDIAtechnoTRICS Wikipedia got most of the things needed in a full-packed library. Ranging from scholarly work to Britney Spears’ derriere issue, almost everything is possibly present. it is a site of mixed information containing a datum’s etymology, progress, meaning and relevance relayed on an easy play of words. But concerning about the facts, is Wikipedia reliable? Or does it really need a Pedia for check-up?  WIKIPOPULARITY
So what makes Wikipedia a household name? It is free for everybody and it has a massive archive of articles with topics ranging from Anemones to Zealots. As of January 1, 2008 it already had over 2,154,000 articles consisting of over 937,000,000 words. Wikipedia’s articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world and the vast majority of them can be edited by anyone with access to the Internet. Having steadily risen in popularity since its inception, it currently ranks among the top ten most-visited websites worldwide. You could search for almost everything and anything under the sun. Thus, students who have research workscommonly depend on this website. ‘WEAKI’ ASPECT Under the overwhelming advantages of this website lies its dark side that goes by unnoticed. The 2 million article count of the website aroused interest of some critics content-wise. This website is free – not only for those who access and retrieve information. But also for those who want to give extra information about a subject making it insignificant and unreliable in terms of the accuracy of the information. Some has described it as an irresponsible site for it lacks proper source citation. The website is prone to vandalism that may leave a significant flaw. It is also susceptible to the biased views and opinions of other contributors. Politics has been incorporated as well by views on certain organizations like the US House of Senate. And because of its open nature, people’s contributions yield to a choppy and unparallel page WEAKIPI-ADS Some people who are into editing these pages have the tendency to make these articles look like advertisements. A computer company called HP (Hewlett- Packard) - known for their products like computer peripherals such as printers, monitors, digital cameras etc. A head note in the page says this: “This article or section is written like an advertisement. Please help rewrite this article from a neutral point of view. Mark blatant advertising for speedy deletion, using {{db-spam}}.” – suggests that companies who have their profile in the website could just add extra information to make it look as an advertisement – then the website could be considered as a free ad space. WIKI SCANNING Because of all these criticisms, Wikipedia made a move on stabilizing the articles by locking it to further editing after undergoing reviews from trusted editors. And in August 2007, a website developed by Virgil Griffith, a computer science graduate, paved the way to a more trustworthy Wikipedia. This is called the WikiScanner. It traces the sources of the corrections made to an article. This website determines the changes made and further stopping its occurrence. Surprisingly, in its debut, edits trace back to sovereign agencies with articles about them. These agencies revised the page to filter out their criticisms.
AUTONOMOUS PREROGATIVE To Wiki or not to Wiki. It is but a choice and responsibility of the researchers. Say, comparison is easy. Then, one should not confine himself to a single source until proven very accurate. He can always use all his resources and set aside his laziness in order for him to gain the right stuff he needed.
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