For many students, Wikipedia is a source of random trivia or a way to figure out what that ancient philosopher was actually saying just in time for section. But for some, it's more.
"I do have these grandiose ideas about Wikipedia," said Sam Levine '08. "Sometimes I think it's going to be the one true information source that everyone will go to in the future."
Levine, an applied math and neuroscience double-concentrator, said Wikipedia is set as his browser's home page. He started making small, anonymous corrections on the site before he arrived at Brown. As a freshman, he created the "Brown Wikipedians" Facebook group - more recently, he began creating articles about topics ranging from books to video games, said most "Wikipedians" are very respectful and cooperative and use the articles' discussion pages as a place to "reach a consensus" about conflicting information.
"People are all very polite in general," he said. "If you lash out at people and use a lot of capital letters, they're not going to take you seriously," he said, adding that "precedent" and "seniority" are important, as contributors check other editors' previous contributions to determine their credibility.
Wikipedia is a collaboratively written, Web-based encyclopedia maintained by the continued contributions of volunteers - the Wikipedians - who can edit articles by simply clicking the "edit this page" link. Each article has a discussion page, where contributors can jointly consider various viewpoints and resolve disputes when necessary, and a history page that allows the site's visitors to view previous versions of the article.
Wikipedia receives around 7 billion page views each month, according to Sandra Ordonez, a Wikimedia spokeswoman. "You literally have thousands of people volunteering and sharing their knowledge," Ordonez said. "The diversity is awesome."
Aya Karpinska GS, who is working toward a master's degree in the Literary Arts Program and teaching an electronic writing course, said the electronic medium allows for a new type of interaction.
"Because it is edited by a number of people, I think their presence is felt in a way that's much richer than in something like an Encyclopedia Britannica," she said. Even though "the vast majority of users" do not contribute, Karpinska said "there's a sense of it feeling alive and open to participation."
Karpinska said she herself has edited a page only once - to add herself to the article about digital poetry.
"I saw this digital poetry page and I thought, 'why am I not there?'" she said. "So under 'Some Key Examples,' I added myself."
Karpinska checked the page at a later date and found her name was now at the top of the list of examples, though she had not put it first when she edited the page. "I get a lot of links to my Web site from there now," she said.
The factors that motivate people to contribute to Wikipedia vary widely. Like Karpinska, Andrew Jacobs '08 said he has contributed only once, but he said his reason was "sentimental."
When Jacobs came across a "biased account" of the final Phish festival, Coventry, he decided to write "a more neutral entry about it."
"The article was saying how the show was horrible," he said. Though he did not attend Coventry, Jacobs had followed Phish that summer and attended several of the concerts leading up to it. He said "it was by no means a huge disappointment" as the article made it appear. "I felt the need, as a fan, to stand up for Coventry."
Jacobs has not edited anything since, but he said he uses Wikipedia at least three to five times a week, and sometimes a lot more. Recently, it led him to discoveries about how the first three digits of social security numbers are determined and why refried beans are called refried if they aren't actually fried twice.
(For the record, according to Wikipedia, the first three numbers in a social security number refer to geographic region, and "refried" refers to the Spanish word "refrito.")
For the most part, Jacobs said Wikipedia is most useful when you're looking for "obscure facts" or a "thumb-print sketch" of an issue.
Helen Pang '10 said Wikipedia is generally the first place she turns when she wants to look something up. "The collective knowledge of the users is pretty staggering," she said. "You can pretty much find anything you're looking for."
Though Pang has never edited the site for content or started any new articles, she has made minor copy editing changes and added photos to existing pages. According to Pang, she has "OCD copy editing tendencies."
"Whenever I see blatantly wrong grammar or spelling anywhere, I want to fix it, but on Wikipedia I actually can," she said. "It's pretty satisfying."
Still, Pang said she rarely sees the need to make corrections. "I go on pretty frequently, and I don't see too many mistakes."
Pang said she created an account in order to track her contributions in case she wanted to write more in the future, but so far she hasn't found the opportunity. "I don't really have expert knowledge on obscure topics that would actually need my insights."
Pang was not the only one who felt she did not have adequate knowledge to edit content on the site.
"I don't think I'm the proper authority to correct any content issues," said Herald business staff member Alex Hughes '10.
Hughes said he's come across small errors but has never felt moved to correct them. "I've never edited an article," he said. "I just don't care enough."
Though he said Wikipedia is a valuable resource for "surface-layer background information," and he uses it several times a week, it's important to remember that "biases can easily slip into the content."
Many may be skeptical of the validity of a collaborative resource like Wikipedia, but Levine said he's confident about its legitimacy and believes it's "better than any news source" because contributors of varying viewpoints debate and discuss issues in order to create an accurate entry.
"It's really satisfying to watch (the articles) grow," he said. "I like to think that future students will look at the articles I've created for the books in my classes, and that they'll profit from what I've done."
"This is all basically a community service project," Levine said. "For the most part, everyone is trying to do good."
