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Meta
Tag Archives: Wikipedia
Intersection of Gender and Knowledge
A recent episode of the Freakonomics podcast, “Women Are Not Men,” looked at gender inequities in various arenas. I thought the discussion of why women are less likely to be editors and contributors to Wikipedia raises some interesting issues about how the construction of knowledge is complicated by culturally-bound notions of whether competitiveness is essentially a male or a female trait. After pointing to a study documenting the dramatically lower participation levels of women in Wikipedia editing, the hosts of the podcast moved on to look at studies of how competitiveness is gendered in a patriarchal society and a matriarchal one.
I can’t wait to figure out how I’ll use this in LIB 3040 this semester.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Gender roles, LIB 3040, Podcasts, Wikipedia
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Books Cited in Wikipedia Articles
Tim Spalding, the founder and developer of LibraryThing, recently analyzed what books were cited in Wikipedia entries and came up with a list of the top 100 most cited books, which seem heavy on military history and pop culture.
Spalding, Tim. “The Books of Wikipedia.” The LibraryThing Blog, 22 November 2009. Web.
Tighter Editorial Control at Wikipedia Leads to Stagnation
A recent article in the Guardian suggests that the rapid growth in the number of new Wikipedia entries and edits has slowed in recent years. It is suggested that the elite group of Wikipedia editors has focused more on controlling content. The change is characterized as a battle in which the “inclusionists,” who wish to expand Wikipedia even if new content isn’t properly referenced, are losing out to the “deletionists,” who are concerned more with overall quality than quantity of information in Wikipedia.
Johnson, Bobbie. “Wikipedia Approaches Its Limits,” The Guardian, 12 August 2009. Web.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Articles, Online encyclopedias, The Guardian, Virtual communities, Wikipedia
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Information May Want to Be Free, But Is That Always Beneficial?
Today’s New York Times carried a front-page story (below the fold) reporting on yet another Wikipedia controversy. An ER doctor in Canada added all ten images from the Rorschach inkblot test to the Wikipedia entry for “Rorschach test.” Typically, the distribution of educational and psychological test materials is limited to qualified professionals, lest wider dispersion of such assessment and measurement tools lead to people learning how to game the tests and render the tools useless.
To really delve into the issue beyond where the Times article takes it, take a look at the discussion page for the “Rorschach test” entry in Wikipedia.
Cohen, Noam. “Has Wikipedia Created a Rorschach Cheat Sheet?” The New York Times, 29 July 2009. Web. 29 July 2009.
“Rorschach test.” Wikipedia, 29 July 2009. Web. 29 July 2009.
“Talk:Rorschach test.” Wikipedia, 29 July 2009. Web. 29 July 2009.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Information ethics, Rorschach inkblot test, The New York Times, Wikipedia
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