Know It All: Can Wikipedia conquer expertise?

1. What do you think are the author's main points in this article?

1. Acccesibility
   
2. Accuracy
   

A main point that is discussed in the article is accessibility. Well's main motif in starting Wikipedia was presenting the opportunity for everyone to access some sort of encyclopedia source with great ease. Another point that is emphasized throughout the article is accuracy. Even though Wikipedia revolutionized the web back in 2001, many still debate how accurate the search engine truly is due to its quick editing process.

2. An important part of credible writing is selecting good supporting evidence. Select a passage from this article that illustrates the effective use of supporting detail. Explain why you think it is particularly effective.

"Wale's most radical contribution may be not to have made information free but- in his own alma-matricidal way-to have invented a system that does not favor the Ph.D. over the well read fifteen-year-old. "To me, the key thing is getting it right,"Wales has said of Wikipedia's contributors. "I don't care if they're a high school kid or a Harvard professor." At the beginning, there were no formal rules, though Sanger eventually posted a set of guidelines on the site."

This passage describes how due to the accessibility to a wide range of audience and editing options, it conflicts with the website's accuracy. With thousands of posts daily, Wikipedia fails to be a legitimate source due to the availability of adding and changing information. This passage also reflects the true intentions of developing a program such as Wikipedia so anyone can feel free to access it and "does not favor the Ph.D. over the well read fifteen-year-old." This is a pivotal point because that's how Wikipedia differs from other dependable sources online.

3. Throughout the article, the author compares Wikipedia to the Encyclopedia Brittanica, but not specifically on design. How would you compare the two encyclopedias from a design perspective?

From visiting both websites, the Encyclopedia Brittanica website is more inviting and more intriguing than the plain simple Wikipedia page. In contrast from Wikipedia, Encyclopedia Brittanica offers a great visceral appeal and more of a professional outlook with its visual headlines. On the other hand, Wikipedia's simplicity, is a very important factor because it maybe less overwhelming to some and has a pretty straight forward search engine. The fact that the page offers a great variety in language options, definitely helps people facilitate a search in their language of choice.