Achieving World Domination One Website at a Time (Or, My Procrastination Destination)

Look at the logo to the right of this sentence and say it with me, now (I know you know what I'm about to say): "Wikipedia is not a reliable source."

How many times have I heard that one from teachers, professors, the media, etc.? In fact, I think I may have even been guilty of saying this to my high school students once or twice during my teaching blocks (all the while feeling hypocritical because I typically use the website on a weekly - if not daily - basis to look up all kinds of trivial information). But the trouble with that attitude is, Wikipedia, as our class has discussed numerous times over the course of the semester, is a decent source of information depending on how one uses it and what they are using it for.

Interestingly, it seems like corporations and organizations might actually be beginning to buy into this new vision of Wikipedia as a "worthy" source of information.

Traditionally, the direction of hyperlinks has flowed from Wikipedia to outside websites like official homepages (for bands, businesses, etc.) or sites recognized as being authorities on some subject or other. But, as I was searching for upcoming concerts for the city of Toronto, I came across the homepage for the revival of Lilith Fair. The "About" section of this page offers a very brief history of the concert series and finishes with "For the complete history of Lilith Fair, please visit our page on Wikipedia" (hyperlinks emphasis is theirs). This is the first time that I've come across an official website that has linked from them to Wikipedia, essentially giving their stamp of approval to the content of the page that bears their name.

I checked to see if maybe the organizers of Lilith Fair had been able to arrange for their page to be closed to outside editors or if they had veto power over the information that was added, but that page doesn't appear to be different from any other page on the collaborative digital encyclopedia project. This development seems to suggest that those in charge of Lilith Fair have faith that the wisdom of crowds will prevail and any errant edits suggesting that Sarah MacLachlan is an alien (or other similar nonsense) will quickly be corrected.

Examples like this give me hope that as Wikipedia becomes more ingrained as part of our regular internet information-finding routine more trustworthy sources of information (e.g. historians or other experts in their fields) will feel compelled to come forward and participate as contributors in order to ensure the accuracy of the information on the site. And if this happens, maybe we can finally put a stop to those people that outright dismiss Wikipedia as a source, while at the same time improving its content.