After hours Toolkit

Wikipedia review

6.3

Editors' Rating

Setup & interface		6.0
Service & support		7.0
Features		6.0

Laurie Bouck CNET

Published: 28 Oct 2005

Wikipedia is on the bold frontier of open-source information. Free and available online in its entirety, this virtual encyclopaedia relies on readers to create and verify its content. Wikipedia is convenient, constantly updated, and easy to use, offering entries you won't find elsewhere. And if you don't find what you want, you can add an entry yourself. Wikipedia's hands-on nature leaves it vulnerable to vandalism, however, despite the community's efforts at self-policing. The authority of the contributors is also unclear, although the ongoing editing usually creates balanced and detailed entries. Wikipedia is a work in progress, and some sections are still under construction. But if you're looking for a different take on information than what an off-the-shelf program offers, and you seek liberation from software-installation headaches, Wikipedia may fit the bill.

Installation & interface

As a completely free online reference source, the non-profit Wikipedia has an enormous advantage over installed software such as Microsoft's Encarta and Encyclopedia Britannica. No need to devote chunks of computer memory to the program or fret about interference from antivirus software or firewalls -- you can access Wikipedia from any computer with Internet access.

Designed by and for technically experienced users, Wikipedia's information-jammed pages and utilitarian design are easy to navigate but may seem less than dazzling for casual users accustomed to colourful, flashy Web pages. Once you reach the Wikipedia.org Web site, you can run searches or use Wikipedia's sister projects, such as the Wiktionary dictionary and thesaurus, the Wikibooks collection of editable online manuals and textbooks, the Wikispecies directory of animal and plant species, the Wikisource online source-document site, and the user-created Wikinews. A Wikiquote quotation collection and a Wikijunior children's encyclopedia are under construction.

Wikipedia grew out of the open-source movement, which advocates free, community-constructed software. Thus, volunteers -- even you -- can write the articles after first testing your skills in the self-guided Sandbox section. Each hyperlink-laden article includes a discussion tab for comments and queries, a tab to edit the page, and a tab that displays the history of page edits. You can click to sister sites via icons at the bottom of the page. Thanks to its ease of use, detailed entries and community spirit, Wikipedia is a favourite resource for bloggers.

Features

Launched in January 2001, Wikipedia boasts a huge content warehouse: more than 754,000 articles in English; nearly 300,000 articles each in French, Polish, Swedish, Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, Italian and German; and over 1,000 articles in 62 other languages. Wikimedia Commons also offers a bank of more than 260,000 audio, music, image and video files, to which readers can upload their relevant media.

Wikipedia's readers view about 2 billion pages each month and instantly update news and information worldwide. For example, unlike its disk-bound competitors, Wikipedia had an article on Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers the day of her nomination. Wikipedia also has plenty of historical entries, but its more obscure information sets it apart. After all, you won't find pictures of Carhenge (a Stonehenge-like structure made out of sedans) or a biography of Captain Kirk (Starfleet serial number SC 937-0176 CEC), in Encyclopedia Britannica or Encarta. Wikipedia articles are generally thorough and accurate, and it's a useful and quick tool. Plus, you can chime in with your own details on any subject; contributing and editing aren't limited to credentialed writers. Wikipedia's collaborative nature serves literate DIYers well.

Yet the do-it-yourself nature of Wikipedia creates unique problems, such as vandalism -- particularly with controversial topics. For example, a reader inserted churlish edits into an article on President George W. Bush. The community of some 500,000 registered 'Wikipedians' is supposed to fix such aberrations as soon as possible, and occasionally locks articles from editing to preserve their integrity. Top-notch contributors can become gatekeeping Administrators, who aim to keep content balanced and block disruptive users; however, it's unclear whether they can keep up with the ever-expanding volume of articles. Wikipedia's founder, Jimmy Wales, encourages contributors to cite sources for their data -- a process that works surprisingly well. The most heavily edited articles are generally the most accurate.

Because Wikipedia is an ongoing project, it has occasional gaps in coverage. For instance, some words in the Wiktionary have their etymology listed, while others do not. And there are no student-friendly brainstorming tools, such as Encyclopedia Britannica's BrainStormer and Encarta's Visual Browser.

Service & support

Wikipedia's thorough online help section, accessible through a link on each page, covers the details of navigating, using and contributing to the encyclopaedia. You can also file complaints and report vandalism and copyright infractions online. Wikipedia's support pages have developed organically, reflecting the demands of fellow readers and editors, and are perhaps more useful than the online help pages of software such as Encyclopaedia Britannica. Help and Reference desks are available online, and you can research technical and procedural questions at the Village Pump link. One downside is the lack of a phone number to call with technical questions. And while Wikipedia's FAQs and tutorials are useful, be prepared to wait any length of time for a posted or emailed reply from fellow Wikipedians if you've posted questions to the help desk.