Friday, March 26, 2010

Edit Wikipedia?!?!

If my teacher told me to edit the "Education" page on Wikipedia I'm pretty sure I would refuse to do it. It's not because I don't understand what education is, it's because I'm not knowledgeable enough to explain that term. But if my teacher told me to pick any wikipedia entry and edit it, I feel like there are a few topics I would be able to add my knowledge to. Editing a Wikipedia page is a powerful thing to do. It shouldn't be done if you don't have extreme knowledge of a topic. What you write is what someone else will read and believe to be truth.

If I had to edit a page I would edit two pages. I am a super fan of Dave Matthews Band and The Beatles. I know a lot about these bands, own close to 300 songs from each band, and have read many articles and books about them, including The Beatles Anthology. The only reason I would ever even think about touching this articles is because I have great knowledge of the bands. While I'm sure a lot of people think this a dumb thing to edit, to me music is a passion and these bands are my favorites. It would be an honor to contribute some of my knowledge to their pages on Wikipedia.
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3 comments:

  1. UnknownMarch 27, 2010 at 12:52 AM

    I think the way you describe editing Wikipedia epitomizes the best way to correctly use this website. You mention that the only reason you would like to edit the page is because you could contribute to the page's knowledge base. This means that you merely want to input your own observations in addition to the one's already made. I think that Wikipedia should be there to show the opinion of many people, not just few.

    Similar to your possible editions, I would like to make some additions to the "Frank Sinatra" page as well. I have studied and read books about him and music and feel that I could bring some interesting ideas to the table.

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  2. Ben KurlandMarch 28, 2010 at 5:05 PM

    The only problem with editing a page on the Beatles or Dave Matthew's Band is that there hundreds of thousands of fans that are just as passionate as you. In order to edit their page you have introduce something novel. For me, I chose to edit the page on the Red Hot Chili Peppers, a band that I am extremely passionate about. One thing I noticed about their page is that it seemed to lack any mention of their unreleased tracks, otherwise known as B-sides. Are there certain B-sides of the Beatles or Dave Matthew's Band that you could write about?

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  3. Christopher LeschMarch 28, 2010 at 9:19 PM

    You brought up a good point about how we often take what we read to be true, even before we check to see if the source is credible. I also like the Beatles but am by no means an expert on them. It would be interesting to read what information you know about them by reading the Wikipedia page.

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