I’m amazed how many Internet savvy adults don’t know about Wikipedia. Wikipedia is basically a free website where people work together to
write informative articles on most any subject. It is considered the world’s largest Internet encyclopedia available in English at Wikipedia Website.
This website is viewed by over 14 million people per hour just in English as of September 2013. Wikipedia is user generated and anyone can create or edit any article. Founded in 2001, there are more than four million articles in English, but is available in 250 languages on every conceivable subject. Wikipedia is written and edited by 100’s of thousands of contributors from all walks of life.
Each article includes a basic overview, history of the subject, content details, examples, related information, and references. School children and adults use this valuable resource, since it’s readily available, free, and very understandable in simple terms. However,
there are very technical articles that only scientists or engineers may understand.
Some indicate Wikipedia is not as good as printed or the more established encyclopedias, because anyone can create or change the contents. Some indicate not all articles may be correct as in the case of our Congress, who apparently has corrected some of their articles written by others. Also, some say there is likely to be some bias by the contributors. On the other hand, others say that other established or printed encyclopedias may also have the same problems.
Every Wikipedia article is sourced with many references listed at the end, which gives Wikipedia increased validity with source verification of their articles. This allows the users and experts to check the references for validity and respond accordingly.
Bob Larson is a technologist and our Marketing Director for 50 Plus. Contact Bob at Email Bob for more info on this column.