i Generation
Infinite information at your fingertips
By Alyssa Christianson

Have you ever wanted to know about s o m e t h i n g quickly and p a i n l e s s l y ? Ever had a question about s o m e t h i n g obscure and you were sure no one around would know about it? Well, then I have the perfect Web site for you …

Wikipedia.org is one of the most useful Web sites on the Internet.

Think of an entire, unabridged, timeless encyclopedia. Now, picture it right at your fingertips and just a click away!

Wikipedia is a Web-based, free content encyclopedia project. Wikipedia is considered a project because all of its six million and counting articles are written and maintained by volunteers.

Literally anyone can go on to Wikipedia and create or edit an article at any time, for free. Of course, the most obvious problems with this are vandalism, bias, or incorrect information.

Vandalism is one of the lesser problems to be dealt with over Wikipedia. Vandals oftentimes will access an article and add nonsense or delete valuable information.

Most vandalism problems are dealt with almost immediately though and offenders are reported to the administrators, who at any point can block an IP address from editing the Web page.

Bias is a more difficult problem. Authors of articles often color their information unintentionally. Other users can warn the administrators if they suspect bias and a banner will be placed at the top of the article, warning readers of this. The same goes for incorrect information, which is usually corrected within a matter of minutes.

For the most part, Wikipedia is a reliable source of information due to the sheer number of people who scan the articles daily. Any discrepancies can be fixed immediately.

Studies conducted by Nature, a scientific journal, compared Wikipedia to the Encyclopedia Britannica and suggested that the two had similar levels of accuracy. The study also suggested that Wikipedia was a "good place to start research."

Many of my peers at school use Wikipedia for school assignments, especially to gain background information or to help them study for a test. I have used it for similar purposes and also if I'm just curious about something.

At school, we are usually warned not to use Wikipedia as a source for any projects or papers we're doing, just because of the possibility of inaccuracies, but otherwise many teachers also find it to be useful and helpful.

Anything can be found on Wikipedia. Whether you're searching for information about the Andromeda Galaxy or when the spoon was invented or what events have occurred on your birthday throughout the history, you can find it here.

Wikipedia is definitely one of the best things to happen to the Internet. Never again do we have to go to the library and dig through musty, old encyclopedias! And, if we want, we can tell the world all we know about any given topic.

I myself have even composed and edited a few articles for the Web site, which I check on occasionally to fix any vandalism.

So anytime you feel the need to learn about anything, Wikipedia is the place to check. Just type in whatever your heart desires in the search box, left-click, and you're on your way.

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Alyssa Christianson is a member of the Oakmont Regional High School Class of 2008. She resides in Ashburnham with her parents.