WEBVTT - What are wikis? 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:02.880 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 0:00:03.200 --> 0:00:08.920 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With 0:00:09.080 --> 0:00:17.680 tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello there, everyone, 0:00:17.840 --> 0:00:20.040 Welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Pollette, and 0:00:20.040 --> 0:00:21.799 I am the tech editor here at how stuff works 0:00:21.800 --> 0:00:25.520 dot Com. As usual, sitting across from me is the 0:00:25.560 --> 0:00:31.160 man we all know as senior writer, Jonathan Strickland. Helloha, y'all. Helloha. 0:00:31.600 --> 0:00:34.080 Well it makes sense considering what we're gonna talk about. Yes, 0:00:34.120 --> 0:00:36.560 and we're gonna talk about it really fast. Yeah. Well, first, 0:00:36.640 --> 0:00:42.560 let's uh, let's go into a little listener mail. This 0:00:42.800 --> 0:00:46.320 listen mail comes from Matt from Boulder, Colorado, and Matt says, Hey, guys, 0:00:46.360 --> 0:00:48.600 I'm a high school science teacher and have been involved 0:00:48.600 --> 0:00:50.840 in a huge battle for the past couple of years. 0:00:51.080 --> 0:00:53.360 Throughout the year, I assigned some research projects for my 0:00:53.360 --> 0:00:57.400 students nuclear energy, sources of energy, physics of musical instruments, 0:00:57.400 --> 0:00:59.800 et cetera. And when the students go to the computer 0:00:59.840 --> 0:01:03.320 line up to find information for their projects, the first 0:01:03.360 --> 0:01:06.520 website they jumped to is Wikipedia. No matter how hard 0:01:06.560 --> 0:01:08.280 I try to drill into their heads, that is not 0:01:08.360 --> 0:01:10.440 a valid source of info. They still use it. Since 0:01:10.480 --> 0:01:12.760 you guys do lots of research, could you explain to 0:01:12.760 --> 0:01:16.200 all of your young listeners out there the dangers of Wikipedia? 0:01:16.480 --> 0:01:21.520 Thanks Matt Well. I think, um, before we get into that, 0:01:21.600 --> 0:01:25.560 I think what we should do is talk about wikis because, um, 0:01:25.600 --> 0:01:27.920 you know, Wikipedia is sort of a love hate thing 0:01:27.959 --> 0:01:29.880 with a lot of people, and we'll get into the 0:01:29.920 --> 0:01:34.680 reasons why. But the wiki itself is a pretty useful tool. Um. 0:01:35.280 --> 0:01:38.960 You know, it's it's essentially what it is is. Um, 0:01:39.000 --> 0:01:41.920 it's a wiki. It's a web page. Yeah, it's a 0:01:41.920 --> 0:01:44.360 web page. And um, actually I kind of think of 0:01:44.360 --> 0:01:47.280 it as sort of a microcosm of the web, because 0:01:47.280 --> 0:01:50.000 you're creating your own version of the Worldwide Web. Every 0:01:50.040 --> 0:01:51.960 time you create a page on a wiki, you can 0:01:52.000 --> 0:01:53.880 link it to the other pages on the wiki, and 0:01:54.640 --> 0:01:57.400 it could be on anything and everything. We'll tell you why. 0:01:57.400 --> 0:02:00.400 I got a great idea. Okay, let's uh just gonna 0:02:00.440 --> 0:02:02.760 take you right over here. Right, you see where I'm 0:02:02.800 --> 0:02:05.000 leading you, right to the machine over here. I'll get 0:02:05.000 --> 0:02:06.880 into the way back. Okay, there you go. All right, 0:02:06.920 --> 0:02:08.880 I'm done, I'll get in all right. I'm setting this 0:02:09.320 --> 0:02:13.960 for nine and we're gonna travel through time and space 0:02:14.560 --> 0:02:23.160 because we're going to Hawaii. Oh man, smell that fresh air, 0:02:24.480 --> 0:02:28.560 not like Atlanta at all, cold cold Atlanta. And now 0:02:28.600 --> 0:02:31.080 we're in Hawaii, and and it's great because you know 0:02:31.120 --> 0:02:33.600 as soon as you step out of the time machine, 0:02:33.680 --> 0:02:37.440 they're waiting there with you know, decorative lace and the 0:02:37.680 --> 0:02:41.079 co couldnut drinks and its breast skirts and the sea 0:02:41.200 --> 0:02:45.520 turtles and the spam and the boys. Pardon me, I 0:02:45.560 --> 0:02:48.640 need to get a big rock and break the time machine. Yeah. 0:02:49.160 --> 0:02:51.160 I don't want to go back either, all right. But 0:02:51.560 --> 0:02:55.040 the reason why I brought you here was to point out, well, 0:02:55.040 --> 0:02:56.560 there's one there's when you see the bus over there, 0:02:57.200 --> 0:02:59.600 you see what the name is on that bus. It's 0:02:59.600 --> 0:03:02.880 hard to be account from here. It says wiki because 0:03:03.160 --> 0:03:07.240 I k I it means it's an expression for quick. Oh. 0:03:07.280 --> 0:03:09.919 That explains why I was going quickly right and so 0:03:10.120 --> 0:03:14.280 in n which would be of course today, because we 0:03:14.280 --> 0:03:19.320 took the way back machine word Cunningham, Uh, Cunningham Cunningham 0:03:19.440 --> 0:03:21.960 or cunning Ham if you prefer, I was pronouncing it 0:03:22.000 --> 0:03:26.760 the correct way. He um. He came up with this idea. 0:03:26.880 --> 0:03:31.440 Now he was uh. He used his software developing skills 0:03:31.440 --> 0:03:34.680 and his web developing skills to create the first wiki, 0:03:34.760 --> 0:03:38.080 which was his way of creating an environment where a 0:03:38.120 --> 0:03:41.240 lot of people could share ideas and information in a 0:03:41.440 --> 0:03:45.200 in a collaborative way, um, without having to worry about 0:03:45.880 --> 0:03:48.840 everyone logging into a separate thing and then one person 0:03:48.920 --> 0:03:51.920 taking all of those different pieces and then incorporating them together. 0:03:52.600 --> 0:03:54.120 That wastes a lot of time, you know, you have 0:03:54.160 --> 0:03:57.480 to rely on one person to take all the different 0:03:57.480 --> 0:04:01.840 pieces and and patch something together from them. So he 0:04:01.880 --> 0:04:06.440 created the first wiki. Uh. And then not that long afterward, 0:04:06.800 --> 0:04:11.320 the first public wiki, called the Portland's Pattern Repository shows up. 0:04:12.120 --> 0:04:17.120 And uh, Now Ward's wiki is still active. Yes, so 0:04:17.160 --> 0:04:20.839 you can actually even visit it. Um It's worldwide wiki, 0:04:20.880 --> 0:04:27.800 isn't it? Um? Actually? And I didn't write that down? Well, 0:04:27.839 --> 0:04:30.880 we keep talking, all right, I'll keep talking. So here's 0:04:30.920 --> 0:04:34.600 Ward's idea is that he thinks that if he creates 0:04:34.600 --> 0:04:37.320 this sort of a web environment where anyone can come 0:04:37.360 --> 0:04:43.640 to the web environment and edit things or upload information, um, 0:04:43.760 --> 0:04:47.080 alter things that are already there. Maybe something is interesting 0:04:47.120 --> 0:04:49.400 but it's not really pertinent to that particular discussion, that 0:04:49.440 --> 0:04:52.440 should have its own page. They could create the page 0:04:52.480 --> 0:04:56.000 for that. They could link everything to each other. Um 0:04:56.040 --> 0:05:00.479 and uh and it takes off. Yes, have you found it? 0:05:00.640 --> 0:05:05.400 I'm still looking cud grief too, Yes, okay, because it's 0:05:05.400 --> 0:05:08.960 from Cunningham and Cunningham Incorporated. Ah, there that makes sense. 0:05:09.240 --> 0:05:13.640 Two dot com. So this, this idea catches on and 0:05:14.120 --> 0:05:17.279 becomes a great way for people to collaborate and build information. 0:05:17.920 --> 0:05:21.359 Um and it could be the subject could be anything. 0:05:21.520 --> 0:05:23.640 There are a lot of companies that have wikis, including 0:05:23.640 --> 0:05:25.720 how stuff works. We have a wiki. We did We 0:05:25.839 --> 0:05:29.719 use to to keep check to see it right, Yeah, 0:05:29.800 --> 0:05:31.800 you can't, but we can. That's that's the other thing 0:05:31.880 --> 0:05:34.760 is that wikies don't are not necessarily public. You might 0:05:34.800 --> 0:05:36.719 have to sign in in order to have access to 0:05:36.760 --> 0:05:39.600 a wiki. They're a great tool for people to use 0:05:39.640 --> 0:05:43.240 on their intranet where uh they could share information with 0:05:43.279 --> 0:05:46.359 one another and update that the item. Uh. You know, 0:05:46.400 --> 0:05:50.720 I have give access to every day employees to let 0:05:50.720 --> 0:05:53.200 them update the database rather than having to you know, 0:05:53.320 --> 0:05:54.960 have one person do that, which you know, as we 0:05:55.040 --> 0:05:56.680 mentioned before, it takes a lot of time. Yeah, you 0:05:56.720 --> 0:05:59.000 might have things like company policies on there that might 0:05:59.080 --> 0:06:02.640 change over time, and or you might have uh, um, 0:06:02.680 --> 0:06:05.599 you know, other things like employee contact lists stuff like 0:06:05.640 --> 0:06:07.760 that where it makes it easy for someone to come 0:06:07.760 --> 0:06:10.320 in and make a make a change. Let's say that, um, 0:06:10.400 --> 0:06:13.040 you've recently moved and you need to update your address. Well, 0:06:13.040 --> 0:06:16.000 instead of emailing one person who is the keeper of 0:06:16.040 --> 0:06:18.080 the list, it might be on a wiki where you 0:06:18.080 --> 0:06:19.960 can just go and log in and uh and make 0:06:20.000 --> 0:06:22.400 a quick change. We'll tell you what. Let's uh, I guess, 0:06:22.400 --> 0:06:30.360 we guess we have to go back. Well, it's also yeah, 0:06:30.720 --> 0:06:32.600 and we're in We're in Hawaii and there's a lot 0:06:32.640 --> 0:06:34.480 of sun. All right, let's get on in. Come on, 0:06:34.920 --> 0:06:47.040 let's go back to you. You are oil man. It's 0:06:47.080 --> 0:06:50.440 tough coming back anyway. You're going ahead and get out. 0:06:50.440 --> 0:06:54.200 I'll come on, come on. We can't do that alright. 0:06:54.279 --> 0:06:58.080 So we have this web collaboration tool that various companies 0:06:58.080 --> 0:07:05.520 and organizations start using in order to build communal um information. Yes, sectors. 0:07:05.560 --> 0:07:07.120 I guess you could say. It's kind of hard to 0:07:07.120 --> 0:07:09.240 to put a your finger on it. Like you said, 0:07:09.240 --> 0:07:12.600 it is kind of like a miniature worldwide web. Um, yeah, 0:07:12.680 --> 0:07:15.400 it's it's it's funny because it's in a way it's 0:07:15.400 --> 0:07:19.480 like a web page. Because wikis generally, especially software used 0:07:20.000 --> 0:07:23.120 specifically to create a wiki, something like media wiki, which 0:07:23.160 --> 0:07:28.000 is UM, the software used to build Wikipedia. UM. You 0:07:28.040 --> 0:07:30.400 can it's free for you to use. You can install 0:07:30.440 --> 0:07:33.120 it on your own website to use UM. It has 0:07:33.200 --> 0:07:36.440 markup in it to UM. The way you create and 0:07:36.600 --> 0:07:38.679 you know, add a link to copy on the page 0:07:39.160 --> 0:07:41.560 or or you know, add some information to the page 0:07:41.800 --> 0:07:45.520 is kind of similar to HTML. UM. It's it's not 0:07:45.600 --> 0:07:47.880 exactly the same. But if you you know, want to 0:07:48.040 --> 0:07:50.880 uh add a link to copy, for example, you just UM, 0:07:51.120 --> 0:07:53.960 you know, put a tag around where the copy is 0:07:54.480 --> 0:07:57.240 and add the link in there and it's ready to go. 0:07:57.280 --> 0:07:58.800 And as a matter of fact, is a little simpler 0:07:59.400 --> 0:08:02.960 even then using HTML right, and you can host files 0:08:03.000 --> 0:08:05.200 and things on a on a server and links to 0:08:05.240 --> 0:08:07.920 it through the wiki. So UM, but it's not exactly 0:08:07.960 --> 0:08:10.440 it's not exactly the same thing as the UH as 0:08:10.480 --> 0:08:13.400 the World Wide Web, and it's also not as uh, 0:08:13.520 --> 0:08:15.520 you know, real time is something like I don't know, 0:08:15.560 --> 0:08:18.360 Google Wave, where you have, you know, a wave going 0:08:18.400 --> 0:08:21.080 on and people can make changes to it at the 0:08:21.160 --> 0:08:24.680 same time. It's not and it does not date like that, 0:08:25.240 --> 0:08:27.280 though I would say that Google Wave definitely must have 0:08:27.320 --> 0:08:30.400 been in the developers Google Wave had to be inspired 0:08:30.440 --> 0:08:33.480 by wikis. It's pretty clear, yeah it's wiki, Like, yeah, 0:08:33.600 --> 0:08:38.920 it's a it's definitely spawn of wiki. But now let's 0:08:38.960 --> 0:08:40.720 move on. Now that we kind of talked about what 0:08:40.760 --> 0:08:42.920 a wicki is and that it's, you know, a communally 0:08:43.520 --> 0:08:48.199 operated and maintained source of information of some sort, let's 0:08:48.320 --> 0:08:54.240 let's sort of segue into Wikipedia itself. Now, Wikipedia was 0:08:54.280 --> 0:08:57.240 the brainchild of a couple of different people, Jimmy Wales 0:08:57.360 --> 0:09:01.960 and Lawrence Singer Um, but it it kind of rose 0:09:02.080 --> 0:09:06.120 up out of the failure of another enterprise. That enterprise 0:09:06.200 --> 0:09:10.120 was called nupedia right now. Nupedia was created back in 0:09:10.120 --> 0:09:13.679 two thousand and that was supposed to be an encyclopedia 0:09:14.000 --> 0:09:17.440 kind of resource, much like Wikipedia turned out to be. 0:09:17.920 --> 0:09:22.120 But the major difference was Nupedia was supposed to have 0:09:22.360 --> 0:09:26.800 expert written and peer reviewed articles in it, So we're 0:09:26.800 --> 0:09:30.079 talking about stuff that's written by people who are recognized 0:09:30.080 --> 0:09:32.880 as experts in whatever field it happens to be, and 0:09:32.960 --> 0:09:35.160 that it went everything was supposed to go through a 0:09:35.160 --> 0:09:39.360 pretty rigorous review process. The problem with that is that 0:09:39.600 --> 0:09:44.040 it's slow. It takes a lot of time to generate 0:09:44.120 --> 0:09:46.800 that kind of content, to review it to make sure 0:09:46.840 --> 0:09:51.160 that everything is accurate, and then to upload. It's no, see, 0:09:51.200 --> 0:09:54.720 it's not wicky at all, it um it is. However, 0:09:54.760 --> 0:09:58.520 how certain sites like how stuff Works does things. Yes, 0:09:58.679 --> 0:10:01.000 you know, we we make sure that we'll all of 0:10:01.040 --> 0:10:04.400 our articles are we write our articles, we we research 0:10:04.480 --> 0:10:06.400 write them and then edit them before they ever go 0:10:06.520 --> 0:10:10.400 up on the site, and they are reviewed. Um. For example, 0:10:11.360 --> 0:10:14.040 Jonathan gets you know, a certain amount of time to 0:10:14.160 --> 0:10:16.360 write an article, and then he gives it to me. Well, 0:10:16.559 --> 0:10:19.640 once I've had an opportunity to you know, make changes 0:10:19.640 --> 0:10:21.640 to that basically replace all the words in there with 0:10:21.679 --> 0:10:25.800 my own. Um. I almost made a spit take if 0:10:25.840 --> 0:10:27.600 I had time. That just right, you always take out 0:10:27.640 --> 0:10:32.960 the word poopy. Um. Once I've had an opportunity to 0:10:33.120 --> 0:10:35.480 edit the article, we send it to another editor who 0:10:35.480 --> 0:10:37.920 has an opportunity to go through and make sure that 0:10:38.000 --> 0:10:41.880 everything is okay, that nothing stands out as uh uh, 0:10:42.040 --> 0:10:46.280 you know, being grammatically incorrect or having voice or having 0:10:46.280 --> 0:10:48.640 the wrong voice, or a flaw and logic or something 0:10:49.080 --> 0:10:52.319 um so, which you know does happen never in Jonathan's 0:10:52.400 --> 0:10:56.360 articles of Um, I never use logic, but well, we 0:10:56.440 --> 0:10:59.160 do that before it's even even published, and then we 0:10:59.240 --> 0:11:02.720 have our publishing operations team take the article and actually 0:11:02.760 --> 0:11:05.920 put it on the website itself. And this does not 0:11:06.040 --> 0:11:08.280 happen in a span of twenty four hours. No, this 0:11:08.360 --> 0:11:10.960 is this process from the moment when someone gets an 0:11:11.000 --> 0:11:13.319 assignment to the moment when it goes up on the site. 0:11:13.400 --> 0:11:18.360 Can be usually it's right around two to three weeks generally, 0:11:18.720 --> 0:11:21.480 but it can be longer. I mean, we schedule things 0:11:21.559 --> 0:11:23.720 out well ahead of time in order to because we 0:11:23.800 --> 0:11:28.120 take that into account. Well, when new Pedia launched after 0:11:28.200 --> 0:11:31.560 six months, do you know how many articles they published? Seven? 0:11:32.400 --> 0:11:37.240 Too many? You you you're, you're That numbers too high. 0:11:40.480 --> 0:11:44.960 Six months, six months, because the process was very rigorous. 0:11:45.040 --> 0:11:49.160 So they started to uh to think, you know, this 0:11:49.320 --> 0:11:51.640 project is gonna take a really long time to get 0:11:51.640 --> 0:11:54.480 off the ground. Maybe we should look at some alternatives 0:11:54.480 --> 0:11:57.080 in the meantime. And that's when they started to think 0:11:57.080 --> 0:12:02.480 about creating a resource where anyone could come in and 0:12:02.880 --> 0:12:06.280 write an article about a particular subject, and anyone else 0:12:06.320 --> 0:12:09.600 could come in and edit that article and contribute his 0:12:09.720 --> 0:12:13.920 or her own information to that article. And that became 0:12:14.000 --> 0:12:16.640 the basis of Wikipedia. Well, that that should be really 0:12:16.679 --> 0:12:19.679 cool because they're all kinds of people who are not 0:12:19.800 --> 0:12:23.319 involved in projects projects like this, who probably have some 0:12:23.400 --> 0:12:28.960 kind of expertise with the topics being explained. Right, So theoretically, uh, 0:12:29.040 --> 0:12:31.720 you know, I could be writing an article about, say, 0:12:31.920 --> 0:12:35.079 roller coasters, and a physicist mat might read that and say, 0:12:35.080 --> 0:12:37.160 oh no, no, You've got most of this right. But 0:12:37.200 --> 0:12:41.240 this one section on on inertial velocity is is wrong. 0:12:41.360 --> 0:12:44.400 Let me fix that for you. That should that should 0:12:44.400 --> 0:12:46.640 be a good thing, because that way it would be 0:12:46.679 --> 0:12:49.199 more accurate, and in most cases it is a good thing. 0:12:49.280 --> 0:12:51.679 The philosophy that this is based on is called the 0:12:51.720 --> 0:12:55.480 wisdom of the crowd. So the idea being here that 0:12:55.480 --> 0:13:00.160 that if you think of Wikipedia as a resource that 0:13:00.360 --> 0:13:07.160 any human being could access and contribute to, then eventually, 0:13:07.200 --> 0:13:10.600 as an article develops over time, you should get the 0:13:10.640 --> 0:13:14.720 best information about that particular subject that is out there 0:13:15.160 --> 0:13:20.040 because the people who are doing the research, the people 0:13:20.040 --> 0:13:24.720 who really know what they're talking about, can contribute. So uh, 0:13:24.840 --> 0:13:29.280 over the long run, any particular articles should be the 0:13:29.320 --> 0:13:33.880 best article that you could possibly find. There's some problems 0:13:33.880 --> 0:13:36.360 with this though, during the short run. One is that 0:13:36.440 --> 0:13:42.920 you can have someone post incorrect information a right Another 0:13:43.040 --> 0:13:46.960 is you can have someone with a personal agenda come 0:13:46.960 --> 0:13:50.840 in and post information that that presents a particular subject 0:13:50.920 --> 0:13:54.520 in a good or bad light. Um, yeah, you know, 0:13:54.600 --> 0:13:57.640 I've I've actually had Laura Eats slugs problem with that 0:13:57.760 --> 0:14:02.680 because I've gone in and found information Wait a minute, 0:14:03.720 --> 0:14:05.679 that wasn't actually pertinent to the article right there in 0:14:05.720 --> 0:14:10.319 the middle, right, Laura, You're gross. I literally have you 0:14:10.360 --> 0:14:12.040 need to come to an article and in the middle 0:14:12.080 --> 0:14:16.800 of the copy was somebody essentially not not in the 0:14:16.840 --> 0:14:21.320 Internet sense, tagging the article with some slur against someone 0:14:21.360 --> 0:14:23.440 else that would have nothing to do with the article. 0:14:24.000 --> 0:14:29.120 So vandalism is a problem. Yes, that would be factually 0:14:29.320 --> 0:14:34.480 inaccurate or intentionally factually inaccurate right now now, Because you 0:14:34.520 --> 0:14:40.520 have a community of users who are who are maintaining Wikipedia. Uh, 0:14:40.680 --> 0:14:43.720 most of the time these problems will be found pretty quickly, 0:14:43.800 --> 0:14:46.800 relatively quickly and fixed. But if you have someone who's 0:14:46.800 --> 0:14:50.040 really determined to make a mess of things, that could 0:14:50.040 --> 0:14:52.160 be an issue for a while until they figure out 0:14:52.160 --> 0:14:56.400 a way of either banning that person or actually taking 0:14:56.440 --> 0:14:59.680 the article off from not not removing it from Wikipedia, 0:14:59.720 --> 0:15:04.280 but moving people's ability to edit that article. Changes might 0:15:04.320 --> 0:15:08.040 get kept on articles. We've seen that happen particularly with 0:15:08.080 --> 0:15:11.640 individuals who are still alive. Anyone who's still alive, that 0:15:11.640 --> 0:15:14.880 that an article based on that person often will get 0:15:15.040 --> 0:15:17.560 frozen so that no one can can contribute to it. 0:15:17.640 --> 0:15:20.440 So that way, if someone does have a personal grudge 0:15:20.480 --> 0:15:23.280 against that that particular individual, they can't just go in 0:15:23.320 --> 0:15:28.600 there and and UH completely um ruined that person's reputation 0:15:28.680 --> 0:15:33.920 through various slurs and insults. And these things are particularly 0:15:34.000 --> 0:15:38.440 um active in cases in which and at least ones 0:15:38.520 --> 0:15:43.320 I've seen politicians like last last year in the United 0:15:43.600 --> 0:15:48.440 or not last year, but two years ago now already um, 0:15:48.480 --> 0:15:52.080 you know, the United States presidential elections. Basically anybody who 0:15:52.200 --> 0:15:57.480 was related to the candidates UH had to have their 0:15:57.840 --> 0:16:01.240 profiles for frozen to keep people from going in and 0:16:02.040 --> 0:16:04.920 you know, saying all kinds of things about them, you know, 0:16:05.000 --> 0:16:07.240 true and false things that it may not be pertinent 0:16:07.280 --> 0:16:11.560 to the actual entry. You know, everybody involved, so you know, 0:16:11.600 --> 0:16:14.240 it wasn't just one side, It was pretty much every side. 0:16:14.400 --> 0:16:16.800 But we've seen this even through things that aren't even 0:16:16.880 --> 0:16:21.640 involved in politics, like corporations try to either um to 0:16:21.840 --> 0:16:25.680 censor information that that is harmful to that corporation, or 0:16:25.720 --> 0:16:30.560 to boost the corporation by including almost ad copy type 0:16:30.600 --> 0:16:33.920 stuff in their their articles. Yes, I'm sure that if 0:16:33.960 --> 0:16:36.040 you go to the entry for how Stuff works dot 0:16:36.040 --> 0:16:38.520 com you will find out that tech stuff is the 0:16:38.560 --> 0:16:42.880 best podcast offered by the site. I'm just saying, I 0:16:43.160 --> 0:16:45.000 don't know how that information would have gotten in there 0:16:45.040 --> 0:16:47.240 if it is still there. But you know, it wasn't 0:16:47.280 --> 0:16:51.440 really there. No, I was just wondering being funny. You 0:16:51.560 --> 0:16:53.280 never trying to be funny. I was about to go 0:16:53.320 --> 0:16:56.200 back and look at the revision history. The revision history 0:16:56.280 --> 0:16:58.120 is actually one of the good things about Wikipedia that 0:16:58.320 --> 0:17:00.960 is very useful. The revision history keep track of all 0:17:01.000 --> 0:17:03.920 the changes that are made to an article. So if 0:17:03.960 --> 0:17:06.880 someone does go in and commit some sort of vandalism 0:17:07.040 --> 0:17:09.320 or you know, users notice something and they think it's 0:17:09.359 --> 0:17:12.160 a little questionable, they can flag the article. Um It's 0:17:12.160 --> 0:17:14.280 easy enough to go back through the revision history and 0:17:14.280 --> 0:17:18.199 see when, uh that that change was put in and 0:17:18.240 --> 0:17:21.200 who did it, and to change it back if necessary, 0:17:21.359 --> 0:17:25.480 So they have a lot of protections there in place. UM. Now, 0:17:25.640 --> 0:17:28.040 let's kind of get into the whole reason about why 0:17:28.800 --> 0:17:32.040 you should not use Wikipedia as a source in things 0:17:32.040 --> 0:17:34.840 like schoolwork and why how stuff works. Dot Com does 0:17:34.880 --> 0:17:38.160 not use Wikipedia. There are a couple of reasons. One 0:17:38.359 --> 0:17:41.360 is the malleable nature of Wikipedia that we've already mentioned 0:17:41.880 --> 0:17:45.800 is that you know, one, it's impossible to determine on 0:17:46.480 --> 0:17:49.040 on any particular day that the article you are reading 0:17:49.800 --> 0:17:53.879 is accurate and factual. Too, even if it is accurate 0:17:53.920 --> 0:17:58.919 and factual, that article may look totally different tomorrow. So 0:17:59.040 --> 0:18:02.040 if you cite an article but then the site disappears 0:18:02.040 --> 0:18:04.640 because someone's made an edit and has removed that part 0:18:04.640 --> 0:18:08.560 of the article, your your source no longer exists. Yep. 0:18:08.880 --> 0:18:10.639 I mean you could go through the revision history and 0:18:10.640 --> 0:18:13.760 try and find it, but that starts getting really kind 0:18:13.760 --> 0:18:19.400 of complicated. Three, it's not a primary source. And Wikipedia 0:18:19.440 --> 0:18:21.600 actually spells this out if you go to Wikipedia and 0:18:21.680 --> 0:18:25.680 you read what Wikipedia is not. One of the things 0:18:25.760 --> 0:18:28.480 Wikipedia is not is a primary source. Now, what that 0:18:28.520 --> 0:18:31.320 means is that Wikipedia is not a place to publish 0:18:31.359 --> 0:18:34.400 something for the very first time. You if you were 0:18:34.480 --> 0:18:38.560 to do a scientific study, you would not publish the 0:18:38.600 --> 0:18:42.320 findings of that study in Wikipedia before you published it 0:18:42.320 --> 0:18:44.240 anywhere else. You would have to have it published in 0:18:44.280 --> 0:18:47.720 a peer of view journal or some other format. Before 0:18:47.760 --> 0:18:50.680 you could reference it in Wikipedia, and you wouldn't be 0:18:50.680 --> 0:18:52.359 able to publish it if you put it in a 0:18:52.359 --> 0:18:54.360 peer of view journal. They would never like you put 0:18:54.400 --> 0:18:58.439 the entire full text of THEIA, but you could at 0:18:58.520 --> 0:19:02.640 least reference the findings you could. Now that's I think 0:19:02.720 --> 0:19:05.840 that alone state is a reason why no one should 0:19:05.920 --> 0:19:08.560 use that in any kind of schoolwork or for house 0:19:08.560 --> 0:19:10.560 stuff works dot com. Just the fact that it's not 0:19:10.640 --> 0:19:16.200 a primary source um. Usually, whenever I have actually thinking 0:19:16.200 --> 0:19:18.000 back on it, I can't think of a single time 0:19:18.040 --> 0:19:20.240 I was a signed of paper where I was told 0:19:20.240 --> 0:19:23.480 that I could use anything other than primary sources. I 0:19:23.480 --> 0:19:27.040 could only use primary sources. Now what that means is 0:19:27.080 --> 0:19:29.200 you can go to Wikipedia and look at the sources 0:19:29.240 --> 0:19:32.840 that Wikipedia used, the people who created that article, and 0:19:33.200 --> 0:19:36.679 track those back and see if those have merit um. 0:19:36.720 --> 0:19:38.920 In most cases you should find that they are coming 0:19:38.960 --> 0:19:41.720 from reputable sources. Once in a while, you might come 0:19:41.720 --> 0:19:45.040 across something that was written by you know, some Yahoo 0:19:45.160 --> 0:19:47.600 and then you you may not want to use that 0:19:47.640 --> 0:19:51.840 as a primary source. But that's that's another good example 0:19:52.119 --> 0:19:56.520 for all students out there. I mean, Wikipedia is maybe 0:19:56.600 --> 0:20:00.199 just uh kind of like a cliffs notes thing. I 0:20:00.240 --> 0:20:03.199 don't like the idea of using it other than just 0:20:03.280 --> 0:20:06.240 to go to the bottom and look at the source list. Yeah, 0:20:06.240 --> 0:20:09.720 it's it's extremely useful as the source of primary sources, right, 0:20:09.760 --> 0:20:13.119 and it can also uh well, I wouldn't use it 0:20:13.160 --> 0:20:18.560 as uh a source for something that I wrote for publication. Um. 0:20:18.600 --> 0:20:20.760 It is useful to to give you an idea of 0:20:20.760 --> 0:20:23.520 a concept. I mean if you have no if you're 0:20:23.520 --> 0:20:26.200 assigned to write of paper on something specific and you 0:20:26.440 --> 0:20:28.960 really don't have any understanding of it, you might use 0:20:28.960 --> 0:20:32.080 Wikipedia as an opportunity to learn a little bit about 0:20:32.400 --> 0:20:34.760 what to expect. When you're doing research on the topic. 0:20:34.840 --> 0:20:38.320 You can kind of do a little uh quick and dirty, well, 0:20:38.359 --> 0:20:40.280 you know, what is this thing about, and then once 0:20:40.320 --> 0:20:41.640 you have an idea of it, you might be able 0:20:41.680 --> 0:20:44.400 to go find some primary sources to give you authoritative 0:20:45.000 --> 0:20:48.280 uh information. That's another good point. That another thing that 0:20:48.400 --> 0:20:52.479 they that Wikipedia and the Wikipedia is not folder or 0:20:52.600 --> 0:20:56.000 or article rather, um it states that Wikipedia is not 0:20:56.119 --> 0:21:00.439 meant for people who are experts in whatever particular field 0:21:00.560 --> 0:21:03.240 that article addresses. So in other words, if you're reading 0:21:03.240 --> 0:21:05.560 an article about electricity, you shouldn't have to be an 0:21:05.640 --> 0:21:10.199 electrician or someone with an events degree in physics in 0:21:10.320 --> 0:21:14.080 order to understand it. So, um, yeah, it is a 0:21:14.119 --> 0:21:17.359 good introductory element. It's a good way of looking for 0:21:17.440 --> 0:21:21.000 primary sources, not necessarily the best if you want to 0:21:21.040 --> 0:21:26.640 cite something in an in a academic paper or what 0:21:26.680 --> 0:21:30.600 we do here at how stuff works. So I I've 0:21:30.600 --> 0:21:33.760 often I know that my criticism of Wikipedia in the 0:21:33.760 --> 0:21:36.520 past has come across as Wikipedia is a bad thing. 0:21:36.840 --> 0:21:38.919 I don't really think Wikipedia is a bad thing. I 0:21:38.960 --> 0:21:43.679 just think it's not. It's not entirely reliable now, and 0:21:43.840 --> 0:21:46.440 I think it's it's not really it's not really Wikipedia, 0:21:46.480 --> 0:21:50.120 and it's not the organization behind Wikipedia. It's people who 0:21:50.160 --> 0:21:52.640 go in and mess with it, and people who go 0:21:52.680 --> 0:21:57.120 in to write articles that aren't, you know, factually accurate. Yeah. 0:21:57.200 --> 0:22:01.600 I I've seen articles on Wikipedia that We're just a joke, 0:22:02.040 --> 0:22:05.119 and they were funny. But and and of course, the 0:22:05.119 --> 0:22:08.000 the community did the right thing and eventually took the 0:22:08.040 --> 0:22:11.520 page down, which um, I was sad about at the time, 0:22:11.560 --> 0:22:13.479 But at the same time I was like, well, if 0:22:13.520 --> 0:22:18.720 Wikipedia didn't take that page down, then the entire community 0:22:18.800 --> 0:22:21.800 becomes a joke, not just that page, because they said, well, look, 0:22:21.840 --> 0:22:24.159 we're we know this isn't real, but we're gonna let 0:22:24.200 --> 0:22:28.159 it slide. That's that's they can't be taken seriously if 0:22:28.200 --> 0:22:31.400 they do that. So they made the right choice. But um, 0:22:31.440 --> 0:22:33.880 I will add to though that the uh that other 0:22:34.000 --> 0:22:38.080 people are starting to take this kind of thinking and 0:22:38.160 --> 0:22:41.720 apply it to their own products and services, like for example, 0:22:42.119 --> 0:22:46.159 Britannica dot com announced a while back now, um I 0:22:46.160 --> 0:22:48.359 guess it's probably a couple of years now, um that 0:22:48.440 --> 0:22:51.760 they were going to allow people to uh contribute to 0:22:52.000 --> 0:22:55.640 Britannic you know, Britannica online. And you're going, wait a minute, 0:22:55.720 --> 0:22:59.840 I mean, this is like the ultimate peer reviewed, high 0:23:00.080 --> 0:23:02.719 end encyclopedia. Why would they do this, Well, they're not 0:23:02.760 --> 0:23:07.640 publishing changes before those changes are reviewed by an expert 0:23:07.640 --> 0:23:10.040 as well, so they are they have put in that 0:23:10.200 --> 0:23:12.160 that extra layer of well, hey, if you know something 0:23:12.160 --> 0:23:16.280