Extra Credit Assignment

1. What did wiki software allow Web users to do that the Mosaic browser did not?                                   - Users could not create Web pages that they wanted to make.
2. What do blogs and wikis have in common?                                                                                                 -In both you are able to edit and modify web Pages. 
3. What problem did a young Jimmy Wales find with the World Book Encyclopedia?                                - Wales realized that there were so many things missing within the Encyclopedia.                                                                                                                                                              
4. How was Jimmy Wales inspired by the World Book Encyclopedia to create Wikipedia?                       - He tired an idea that reflected his childhood for the love of the Encyclopedia book. 
5. How have encyclopedias inspired you in your own life?                                                                            - Encyclopedias have inspired me to learn about the life that i live everyday because you can find out so many things in an encyclopedia. 
6. Why did Nupedia fail?                                                                                                                                     - after a year it only had 150 articles making it useless as an encyclopedia guide which is how it fell. 
7. How did wiki software change the ideas behind Nupedia?                                                                         - it combined two ideas to create an innovation that would be successful for everyone to use.
8. What is “crowdsourcing?”                                                                                                                             - crowdsourcing is obtaining needed services and ideas from an online community rather than a traditional employee or supplier. 
9. What do you think about the concept of “any fool in the world” being able to write articles for Wikipedia?                                                                                                                                                        - i think that it is true. because of how technology has shaped our world, anyone can basically create something on the web.
10. Do agree with the idea that “total idiots” could edit Wikipedia and of that being a good thing? Explain.                                                                                                                                                             - i disagree with this. If someone is not very good with information then they should not be editing Wikipedia because the wrong information will be provided for learners. 
11. Why do you think Wikipedia grew so fast and became so popular in such a short amount of time?    - i believe this happened because many people started to use this to help them learn and because a lot of money was put in to making sure that this is the first website that pops up. 
12. Do you believe Sanger’s elitist attitude was a good thing or a bad thing for Wikipedia?                        - By having an elitist attitude, Sanger threatened the company because this could have caused tension and people could not have agreed with what he thought should be done. 
13. What did you learn from the anecdote about the Wikipedia article on Einstein going to Albania for a passport in 1935?                                                                                                                                            - Einstein went to Albania to so King Koz could get him a visa into the U.S to evade the Nazis.
14. Explain this quote from the article: “I can’t imagine who could have written such detailed guidelines other than a bunch of people working together...It’s common in Wikipedia that we’ll come to a solution that’s really well thought out because so many minds have had a crack at improving it.”                                                                                                                                                   - This quote is trying to say that more people working on a task is better than an individual doing it because more ideas can be spread and it would be easier to create whatever the people decide to make. 
15. The author of the article states that Wikipedia “grew organically.” What does he mean by that?         - The author means that Wikipedia grew naturally. They did not advertise or try to become popular, they just became that way. 
16. How has Wikipedia “been the greatest collaborative knowledge project in history?”                            - Wikipedia has been this because Wikipedia offers so much information on certain topics that were not accessible before and this is special because it makes learning easier and it improves knowledge. 
17. Based on your own opinion and experience with Wikipedia, do you agree with the above statement or disagree with it? Explain.                                                                                                      - i agree because you can look up anything and Wikipedia will always have a great long article and provide you with a big sum of detail about your topic. 
18. What does the author mean by “wiki-crack?”                                                                                              - A wiki crack is the rush of dopamine in the brain that makes a smart edit automatically in a Wiki article. 
19. Based on the article, do you believe Wikipedia is a reliable source of information?                                - i believe it is a reliable source because you find so much information with Wikipedia that helps you. 
20. Do you believe its possible for a 16-year-old from New Jersey to write “insightful” Wikipedia articles?                                                                                                                                                            - Yes, because age does not matter in my opinion. This 16 year old boy can be very knowledgeable and use information from other websites to make the Wiki page seem filled with knowledge. 
21. How do you feel about basing your own research on something a 16-year-old wrote on Wikipedia?                                                                                                                                                     - it makes me hesitant but at the same time you never know how smart this 16 year old is and where he gets his information from. 
22. What does Jimmy Wales mean by this mission statement: “Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge?”                                  - He is saying imagine if every person was able to consume knowledge and not need websites such as Wikipedia because we would be knowing everything. 
23. Do you agree or disagree with this mission statement?                                                                             - I disagree because then there would be no purpose of having an internet and websites that provided info. 
24. Do you think Wikipedia has succeeded in its mission?                                                                              - i think Wikipedia has succeeded in its mission because they are known around the world and everyone uses Wikipedia as a source. 
25. Do you agree or disagree that ordinary people, people without degrees, can “be part of the process of creating and distributing knowledge?”                                                                                    - i agree because people can be very smart but too lazy and they can use information that they have gathered from other websites. 
26. Based on your reading of the article, would you yourself use Wikipedia for your academic research?                                                                                                                                                         - I would use Wikipedia for simple information. If i wanted specific info i would use Google Scholars. 
27. Would you yourself like to write and/or edit Wikipedia articles in order to be “a part of the process of creating and distributing knowledge?” Why or why not?                                                                      - i would not write a Wiki article. I feel that i would not do a very good job and i would copy information from other sources.