After the boom, is Wikipedia heading for bust?

04 August 2009 – New Scientist

I like Wikipedia. I champion it against the suspicions of many in the academy. I encourage students to use it. I also use it as a case study of the ways in which, as an organisation and ethic, it is driving some interesting experiments in digital culture. So, this article in the New Scientist is of interest. It cites evidence showing the growth of Wikipedia to have flattened and that its crowd-sourcing democratic ethic is giving way to a much more controlled, hierarchical and elitist modus operandum.

• The number of articles added per month flattened out at 60,000 in 2006 and has since declined by around a third. They also found that the number of edits made every month and the number of active editors both stopped growing the following year, flattening out at around 5.5 million and 750,000 respectively.
• "This is evidence of growing resistance from the Wikipedia community to new content," say the Palo Alto team. Chi told New Scientist that the changes could harm Wikipedia in the longer term by deterring new editors from taking part and so reducing the number of people available to spot and correct the vandalism that constantly threatens the encyclopaedia. "Over time the quality may degrade," he warns.

This is not a reason for students to avoid Wikipedia. It’s especially useful for students at the beginning of their undergraduate degree to get an overview of a particular topic or issue. As a way of examining the construction of ‘accepted wisdom’ at particular historical moments it’s invaluable. Browsing the discussion pages actually manifests the conversations that took place in the creation of the present article – which tomorrow may be different. Of course that can be a problem when it comes to citing a source – how do I know that what a student cites is the present version of a particular article? Do I have to funnel back to the date that the article was accessed to check it? The problem can be solved by pointing students to the ‘cite this page’ link in the left hand menu. After the following useful caveat:

IMPORTANT NOTE: Most educators and professionals do not consider it appropriate to use tertiary sources such as encyclopedias as a sole source for any information — citing an encyclopedia as an important reference in footnotes or bibliographies may result in censure or a failing grade. Wikipedia articles should be used for background information, as a reference for correct terminology and search terms, and as a starting point for further research.

As with any community-built reference, there is a possibility for error in Wikipedia’s content — please check your facts against multiple sources and read our disclaimers for more information.

examples of how the page can be cited are given according to a variety of style conventions; MLA, APA, Chicago, etc.  Using this, discussing it, and enabling students to engage with it knowledgeably is one way in which critical digital literacy (as Howard Rheingold has it, ‘crap detection’) can begin.