Professors and Wikipedia

I've been thinking the same thing that this writer discusses here for a while, but he says it much better than I could:

"It is time for the academic world to recognize Wikipedia for what it has become: a global library open to anyone with an Internet connection and a pressing curiosity. The vision of its founders, Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger, has become reality, and the librarians were right: the world has not been the same since. If the Web is the greatest information delivery device ever, and Wikipedia is the largest coherent store of information and ideas, then we as teachers and scholars should have been on this train years ago for the benefit of our students, our professions, and that mystical pool of human knowledge."

His proposal that all academics with research interests become identifiable editors is interesting, too. I've never been confident enough to even consider it.

Watch wikipedia change!

This is a pretty cool site to visit. You can watch people around the world edit Wikipedia entries in real-time (almost). I find myself using Wikipedia every day, sometimes several times a day. I used it in class today, in fact, to pull up an audio clip of "Dixie." (We were discussing Langston Hughes' "Song for a Dark Girl," which quotes lines from that song.)

I love the ethos of the entire Wikipedia project--people counting on other people to write reliable information. And for the most part, they get it right. It's neat to watch it happen right in front of you--and makes you realize there are real people with real interests (things they care enough to write about and edit) out there doing the work.

By the way, did you know that someone posted my dissertation on Wikipedia? That made me feel just a little bit famous. Then I got over myself. (And no, I have no idea who did it.)