Wikiality Investigation Possible Topics

List of possible topics that we can work on this project

• Nicholas sparks
• Disturbia
• Hitchcock
• Confessions of a shopaholic
• She’s the man
• William Shakespeare
• 10 things I hate about you
• William Shakespeare
• Mongolia
• Comparison between book version and movie
• The proposal
• ISU

Wikiality Investigation 2

For this project, I'm working with Sonya and Elise. We are going to explore the world of Wikis and make a correction on one of wikipedia pages after that. The questions and answers below are individual work that is done by me. :)

What is a Wiki?

A wiki is a website that can be edited by any web users. It is run by a type of server software that allows to create and edit information freely. Wikipedia uses this software and made an online encyclopedia that everyone can be an editor of any web pages.

Who creates them?

Any wiki pages can be created by ANYONE. Since wiki is an "open-editing" website, anyone who wants to share their knowledge can create a wiki, allowing other people to get sources. It can be created by a student, a company, or by professionals as well.

Why use them?

People often use wikipedia because:

1. Wikipedia has works cited page, so the information is accurate enough.
   
2. Some of information that can bring a controversy is edit-protected, and the information is edited by both sides of an argument. Therefore it is unbiased.
   
3. Wikipedia pages update often, putting latest information.
   
4. Wikipedia is convenient to find information that using paper sources. It works as a good encyclopedia.

Who edits them?

Like I mentioned before, wikipedia is "open-editing" web page. Therefore, everyone can edit information from wiki pages. When they figure out some false information, or trying to add information, they can easily edit the website. Furthermore, any administrators from Wikipedia have rights to fix the information as well in order to create a clean wiki environment.

What is your task?

For this project, Sonya, Elise and I are going to understand how wikipedia works. After that we are going to choose a topic that we all are familiar with, and trying to find out some biased information on its wikipedia page. After that we will get confirmed from Mrs. Wilson whether we can change/edit its information. If it is okay to change, then we will change the information without putting any other biased information. Then we will check whether the change is still remained on the page.

Why is it important for you to learn about Wikipedia?

Learning about Wikipedia is important for me because I often use Wikipedia to find sources for research. Even though I've already realized that Wikipedia sometimes give you biased information, I do not know in what was the information is inaccurate. Therefore, if I investigate about Wikipedia and the validity of information, I will be able to learn to figure out in what ways the information is right or wrong. Furthermore, learning about Wikipedia will give me a moral that putting biased information should not be happened. I can learn that Wikipedia is a open information source that should be stayed with a high rate of accuracy as much as possible.

Works Cited

"Wiki." Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 12 February 2010. 23 February 2010.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki

"What is Wiki?" wiki.org. 27 June 2002. 23 February 2010.

http://wiki.org/wiki.cgi?WhatIsWiki

"Wikipedia: Why use Wikipedia." Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 29 December 2008. 23 February 2010. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Why_use_Wikipedia

Wikiality Design

An example that we found from Wikipedia was the inaccuracy of information of Thailand’s wikipedia page. We found out that the surface area of Thailand was inaccurate.

This was the information from Wikipedia about Thailand.

According to the image, the total area of Thailand is 513,115 sq km.

After that, we went to the CIA world factbook to see if the information was wrong.

(Click the image to view it larger)

In the CIA world factbook it said that the area of Thailand is 513,120 sq km.

We went to another website called "index mundi", a website that also shows accurate country profiles, to see if the information on CIA factbook was correct. According to the website, the area is also described as 513,120 sq km.

Therefore, the information on Wikipedia was invalid according to our investigation.

Our design Specifications are:

• The information should be cited properly, using MLA format
• The information should be accurate enough that no additional changes are required
• The information should be from valid source, so that it is reliable enough
  

Works Cited

CIA World factbook. 2010. 23 February 2010.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/th.html

"Thailand Area." Index Mundi. 2010. 23 February 2010.

http://www.indexmundi.com/thailand/area.html

"Thailand." Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 23 February 2010.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thailand

Wikiality Investigation Method

1. Choose a topic/subject that we’re familiar with

2. Check if there is a wiki page on it

3. Check if the information on the wiki page corresponds with the information we know

4. Find a reliable source to back up our theory (News sources, books, magazines, web etc.)

5. Once we’ve found an error, print it out and ask Mrs. Wilson if we can change it.

Wikiality Investigation Group Work 3

Answered by Elise

Where does Wikipedia get its information?

Wikipedia can get its information from a range of different websites. It can get it from personal blogs, twitter, or any other website that are either personal or public. However, it is important that the information on those websites is valid so it won’t be removed soon after.

Who is in charge of deciding what goes into an article and what gets removed from an article?

Even though the Wikipedia program is processed by its administrators, every user can edit every source on a wiki. If someone believes that the information is incorrect or invalid, that person can change or remove the information. Also, administrators have the rights to remove the information in order to keep the web environment reliable.

Wikiality Investigation Group Work 2

Answered by Sonya

How would you know whether a particular article really is accurate?

You can check the ‘for more research’ link. This will give you a list of different books/websites that may go into more detail about that specific topic. Another link that can be used is ‘sources’. You can go to the websites where the information on Wikipedia came from. If the information is similar and makes sense you know that the sources are correct. Before completely believing all the information you should check other sources like Encarta or encyclopedias for more research.

How would you go about discovering whether an article contains inaccurate information?

Once you have found out that Wikipedia page contains false information you can change it. Once you change something you should put your source so that other people can see that you changed the information for a reason.

Wikiality Investigation Group Work

"If there is some debate about whether a particular bit of information should or should not be included in an article, what is the process for deciding?"

When Wikipedia checks the reliability of a source, they use certain criteria to evaluate the information which are:
• Accuracy of information included in the article
• Appropriateness of the images provided with the article
• Appropriateness of the style and focus of the article
• Susceptibility to, and exclusion and removal of, false information (a criterion specific to the Wikipedia process)
• Comprehensiveness, scope and coverage within articles and in the range of articles
• Identification of reputable third-party sources as citations
• Stability of the articles
• Susceptibility to editorial and systemic bias
• Quality of writing

If an article does not match with these criteria, then the editors/administrators consider it as invalid information, and it will be eliminated from Wikipedia.

How reliable do you think Wikipedia actually is?

I think Wikipedia is a pretty reliable source in certain areas such as science fields or profiles of celebrities. In 2005, a report from the journal Nature included that Wikipedia had a similar level of accuracy on its scientific sources compared to Encyclopedia Britannica with a similar rate of making errors on the information. Even though there was a controversy over the validity of this information, it is still believed that people think that Wikipedia can be a good source. However, since Wikipedia can be edited by every user, there is a high possibility of creating false information. Wikipedia in English has a lot of information with a good accuracy of work sources. You can view the same webpage in a different language, and I think there can be some mistakes while people are translating the information into a different one. For example, there is a very long and accurate English Wiki page while only basic information is included in the Wiki page in Korean. Therefore, Wikipedia is a source that the reliability depends on what information the user is going to find out.

Furthermore, Wikipedia can be a reliable or unreliable source based on different age group. For example, students who do not have a lot of information on certain topics may believe that the contents in Wiki pages are 100%true. On the other hand, professionals will be much easier to fine out errors or false information from Wiki articles since they know more information than the other does.

Works Cited

“How reliable is wikipedia?” Yahoo! Answers. 2009. 23 February 2010.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090313101943AAc1mgS

“Is Wikipedia Reliable?” Dummies.com. 23 February 2010.
http://as.dummies.com/how-to/content/is-wikipedia-reliable.html

“Reliability of Wikipedia.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 22 February 2010. 23 February 2010. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reliability_of_Wikipedia

Wikiality Investigation 1

Wikiality Investigation

We firstly made a group wiki website. I was working together with Sarah and Brooke. We went to a website called "PB Wiki" (http://www.pbworks.com) that offers free wiki. We made an account using Sarah's email address, and we put a nickname called "Bobella" :) as our name in order to hide our identity. We decided that everyone on this website is allowed to add or edit things on our wiki web document.




After we created our wiki called "BOBELLA", we put Sarah's fictional podcast script as our web document. Then, we went to other groups' wiki websites individually, and we made either a comment or added changes on their script or wiki front page.


When I was looking around others wiki webs, I intentionally made some "funny" comments on them. I was being one of those mean users who put false or silly information on wikis. I felt very interesting that I could change information so easily even though the website did not belong to me.

When I was done with commenting on other wiki websites, I went back to our group's wiki, and found out what changes have been made. As I expected, our script became very different to the original one. People added silly stuff, and some were even perverted... :(!! Our script had a short profile of the narrator, who was a teen girl, but now there is a profile of weird black guy who enjoys clubbing, not reading. I think people changed these things on our wiki just for fun because they already knew that our wiki belongs to one of their classmates, so it is okay to add silly stuff on it. Also, I do not think that they would do the same thing on professional wiki websites because all the information on those webs needed to be accurate as much as possible so that a lot of people can share each other. When I saw our wiki at first, I felt a little bit angry because we put our information in order to share each other, not just letting them to "adjust" information. On the other hand, I also thought that other people would feel the same as I do when they saw some weird changed happened to their wikis. And I felt guilty that I put so many silly stuff on others' wiki webs.

Luckily, Wiki owners are able to delete some usuless information on their web docments. For example, I could delete some information easily from the page history of our wiki. Furthermore, if owners think that it might be annoying to delete every silly information on their wikis, they can go back to the original (or older) version of their wikis. In order to change the wiki onto its original version on PB Wiki, 1) open recent changes page 2) Click "show changes" of one of the oldest version of web document. 3) Click the changed date that is shown on the top of the website. 4) Click "revert to this version". By using these steps, people can go back to its original version without having any problems :)

I think that wikis can be used in many ways. It can be used to: (Class opinions+my own)

-give resources, or information.

-advertisement

-survey

-debate

-create cooperated book

-create class websites/blog

-etc.

Wikiality

Today we started a new project called "Wikiality". It is going to be about investigating wikipedia and finding out whether the information we get it from there is valid or invalid.

Wikipedia is a type of online encyclopedia that all the individuals can put and fix the information on that website. It provides information in different languages so that many nationalities may share the same information with their mother tongue.

Personally I thought that wikipedia was a good research source that I could get all the different types of information easily. Most of the times, Wikipedia helped me to find out and understand information for my projects. However, one of the problems of wikipedia is that all the information can be adjusted by other volunteers. Therefore, there are possibilities that some information are false and are nonsense. Of course there are people who work hard to fix all the false information on Wikipedia, but there are some sources remained as biased.

In this unit, we are going to search for some of wrong information on Wikipedia, and try to adjust it without putting any biased facts. Also, the information should not be published maliciously.

This project is related to principled, one of IB learner profile, since we need to know some principles of using wiki properly. The chosen Areas of Interaction is "Health and Social Education". Even though it is not related to the "heatlh" part, it is closely related to social education since we are learning netiquettes of using wikis.

I think this project is going to be very interesting, since I'm a great fan of using wikipedia, and I would want to learn a lot from this project.