Pew Internet Research... Wikipedia user profile
Yesterday I was finishing my keynote presentation for the start next Sunday of the 2007 eduWeb conference in Baltimore.
The keynote title is "Marketing and the Web: Trends and Tribulations in Online Communications" and a key part of the message is the increasingly easy ability of "normal human beings" to access the web and add content without the help of web experts.
Doing the usual research, I came across an April 2007 report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project that I'd missed before (despite the email updates I get from them!).
At http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/212/report_display.asp you can read more about why Wikipedia is one of the 10 most popular websites and is likely to stay that way for some time. Take special note of the subhead introducing the report: Wikipedia is "particularly popular with the well-educated and current college-age students."
One reason Wikipedia will stay popular is the high rankings that Google search often gives to articles located there. College and university Wikipedia sites, as I noted in an earlier blog post, often rank in the top 5 listings when searching for them by name. The trial and the tribulation in this is the visible presence on the web of information that most colleges don't care to publish on their own websites. Consider this example:
- A history of student riots at Michigan State over the past three decades at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan_State_University_student_riot
And don't get caught up in an abstact discussion of whether or not what's posted on Wikipedia is accurate. If you see something that isn't right, either correct it yourself or join in the discussion about how it should change. A new form of democracy is emerging in online communicaitons. Experts in everything from content preperation to website design have a less important role than just 5 years ago or so. Join in. Have fun.