TOK Presentation On Wikipedia

[FlyByNight]

My partner and I were thinking about a presentation based upon the validity of Wikipedia. Are linking question would be something like: "To what extent can Wikipedia can be considered a viable resource?" So, we would focus on the aspect of the researcher looking at it as a potential source. I figured we would contemplate the knowledge issue of Authority, and wondering about how much authority can be given to Wikipedia.

Any thoughts?

Peter

[Ruan Chun Xian]

I think it's a great issue. There's a whole host of things you can talk about. There's a lot of biases in many of the articles that can be talked about. There's also the issues of Wikipedia in other languages other than English - some of them are translated directly from the English pages but you can't always guarantee the quality of the translation, or the source material in the first place.

[deissi]

Your topic certainly has potential, but be sure to identify the knowledge issues you will look at before starting work on the presentation. Great topics often turn into ToK-wishy washy about "what is knowledge really?". With an encyclopedia, I can see that happening quite easily. Sorry if I sound negative, like I said, it's a great topic but remember to focus it on knowledge issues!

[SharkSpider]

Well, I can see a few big pitfalls with this topic, but if you avoid them and treat it in a logical, straightforward sense, theres good potential in something like this. I think the main issue you do need to get down is that you can't go up and quote hearsay about Wikipedia, and that quoting cases of misinformed people posting things up there without reference isn't really a legitimate attack against the concept, but of a single user. I suppose one question you might want to cover in depth would be asking if knowledge on a subject really is democratic, or whether more users just makes things chaotic, as well as the question of whether or not accountability and the constant ability to change content is a positive or negative thing to have. If wikipedia has more mistakes but is more current, is it still better than an encyclopedia, that has few mistakes, but gets set in time as soon as its written?

[9d9]

nice topic..!! please work upon it i am sure that u can get 20/20...!! but please remember to add as many knowledges issues as possible and please expand on them..!! good luck..!!