When
you are knee deep in a conversation about a philosopher, author, theorist, or
musician and you have absolutely no idea who the person is. After 8 minutes of
nodding your head and smiling it its time to excuse yourself to attend to a staged
phone call. You take this opportunity to use your smart phone and quickly skim
Wikipedia in efforts of alleviating your intellectual guilt. The act of
becoming familiar with topics goes hand in hand with Wikipedia- no pun intended
towards its easy access via hand held devices.
Wikipedia
has become an integral and useful tool in mankind’s ongoing pursuit of
knowledge. It is flexible in that one can access as little or as much
information that one is looking for. In the before mentioned scenario the “lead”
would be the desired section as it provides a: quick summary of the topic's
most important points (Wikipedia). I will use Marshall McLuhan’s biography and
Michelle Citron’s biography in demonstrating how the structure, content, and
hyper connectivity of Wikipedia can enhance the pursuit of knowledge.
McLuhan
was a philosopher of communication theory and is well respected in his field.
Michelle Citron is a film, video, multimedia artist, scholar, and author. There
is no required template for Wikipedia biographies. Considering that this
information is coming from credible sources- a requirement of Wikipedia’s-
leaves wiki authors with the responsibility of creating a structure that is
conducive to creating insight. McLuhan’s page uses a semi formal tone to
chronologically account for the philosopher’s life in narrative. Four major
sections (life and career, key concepts, and legacy) create a user friendly-
paragraph heavy- frame. Citron’s page is organized in 4 similar sections: early
life, career, filmography, and multimedia. Notice how the articles cover
similar content but are structured in different ways. Citron’s page is far too
opinionated and uses overgeneralizations in its descriptions. McLuhan’s page
uses the narrative structure to create a rhetorical environment that is
conducive to credibility and free of bias. Providing readers with hyperlinks is
a way to establish such credibility that Citron’s piece
lacks.
On
the topic of credibility, and the fact that your staged phone call is starting
to seem suspicious, I’d like to bring your attention to some criteria that
Wikipedia assigns to be considered a featured (credible and extensive) article.
Embodying various levels of detail is essential to the usefulness of Wikipedia
articles. Take the Millennium Park Wikipedia page. This is a great example of a
page that could be used by tourists and devoted enthusiasts alike. Users can
get a brief overview of the park from the map and its legend which covers
information like location, area, visitors, status, and their website. Users
interested in more information can continue to the background section that is
near the top of the page (remember structure holds meaning around here).
Another
constituent outlined by the Wikigods is an image use policy. Proper citations
need to be made regardless of an image being copyrighted or public domain. “Some usage of copyrighted
materials without permission of the copyright holder can qualify as fair use in the United
States (but not in most other jurisdictions). However, since Wikipedia aims to
be a free-content encyclopedia, not every image that qualifies as fair-use may
be appropriate (Wikipedia: Image use Policy, 2013). This panoramic picture
of Millennium Park can serve as an exemplary model of how an image should be
accounted for.
Do
not be ashamed to pull up a Wikipedia page the next time a friend invites you
to a round of beers and casually slips a 17th century sculptor into the conversation.
If they have any idea of what is good for them they will surely embrace you and
thank you for being an active participant!
"Image use Policy." Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 23 March
2013. Web. 27 March 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Image_use_policy>
