What do you do if you have to write an essay about Colombia’s economy? Would you go to the library or you would go to find out things in the Internet? Many people around the world use the Internet sites, such as Wikipedia, to get the information. Other people, however, go to the library. The library gives them more opportunities to get accurate information. Why do people use Wikipedia in the Internet? It is good because it is easy to get it, it allows people to add or change information, and it gives you information immediately.
When there is not a library nearby in which you can get the information that you need, the best way is that you go to the Internet Wikipedia and get it. “This website has grown into an immensely useful resource for background information on a wide range of scientific subjects, and can serve as a quick reference for any number of scientific facts. What is perhaps more important and useful, though, is the extent to which Wikipedia also preserves the debate and discourse around a particular subject” (Parry, 2008, para, 6). When a university student works and studies at the same time one option to consult is in the Internet, an encyclopedia such as Wikipedia is a good choice.
People can add or change information that they discover later in other sources. Lengel (2006) says that many professionals have contributed to make Wikipedia big without any charge and people can use and update the information anytime they want. I think that this good, because it encourages people to put their investigation in this kind of encyclopedia.
In many of the cases graduate students do not have much time to be searching from library to library and with this option in the Internet they can research all the information in different fields and all they need quickly in only one library. “Wikipedia, the peer-produced online encyclopedia is a popular way for people to gain information” (Gapper, 2008, para. 1) Online information is something in fashion and we have to accept it. It is part of this new era or our daily life in almost all the fields.
Opponents argue that Wikipedia is not a good source because people can change the information in it anytime they want without any permission and revision of the person specialized in writing such as writers and editors, and this is going to affect the quality of the information. “While encyclopedias and journals are generally authored by scholar and peer reviewed before publication, Wikipedia articles can be written and edited by anyone at anytime, bringing about a debate over the risk of giving those outside academia the power to create and contribute to articles on scholarly subjects. Furthering this, users can add, alter, or remove information without registering a user account, giving those who visit the site free and anonymous reign over the available information” (Wolverton, 2007).
However, some people think that their argument is from the past and nowadays they have to change their mind and live in the present giving ideas of how to protect the information that is published in this encyclopedia. Maybe they do not have enough information about Wikipedia. Wikipedia gives free education to many people in parts of the world that do not have access to it. Wikipedia is actually a wonderful aid in many different situations.
Would you write an essay about Colombia’s economy with information from an Internet site, such as Wikipedia, or from a library? Some people today think that this is a good online resource to get information quickly and that people have to update it because this is a growing project and in ten years ahead the academic world will turns with the new technology.
To conclude I would like to say the following expression “Imagine a world where you can get the information you want in seconds without going anywhere.” That sounds fantastic. That is what Wikipedia is and it will be in the future. This is a great help because everything will be based on technology and people have to learn and use it.
References
Gapper, J (2008, January 23) ft.com/gapperblog, Wikipedia is popular but scary. Retrieved on June 5, 2009, from: http://blogs.ft.com/gapperblog/2008/01/wikipedia-is-pohtml/.
Lengel, J. (2006, July 02) Authority, Teaching with Technology, Retrieved on June 5, 2009, from: http://tinyurl.com/n5clt2
Parry, D. (2008, February 11). Wikipedia and the new curriculum, Science Progress. Retrieved on June 5, 2009, from: http://www.scienceprogress.org/2008/02/Wikipedia –and-the-new-curriculum/
Wolverton, J. (2007, January 22) Wikipedia wisdom, Valley Vanguard. Retrieved on June 5, 2009, from:.http://www.svsu.edu/clubs/vanguard/stories/1141
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