Purpose
Wikipedia is basically an online database that contains information about just about anything that you want to know or research. This database includes information about businesses and that is how we tie the subject of Wikipedia back to our business class. The problem that Wikipedia can solve for a business person is essentially a point of reference for potential customers. If a customer is looking to buy a product and they want to know more about the product from an in-depth perspective they can go to Wikipedia and learn all about the product or the business.
The issue with Wikipedia is the fact that most of the information that is included on the site is user-generated or edited by people with an account. For all of our lives that we have been in school we have all head to write the dreaded research paper. In the guidelines or rubrics, you always see the rules that you are not allowed to cite any sources from Wikipedia. If a businesses Wikipedia page accurately explains the business and gives all correct information, then there is no problem. The problem exists when people edit the pages and they do so in a manner that doesn't represent actual fact.
Use of the site
Once you make an account within Wikipedia they immediately give you the ability to edit articles. They actually set you up with a starter article that is flagged as an article that needs updating. The articles have banners that show specifically what needs to be fixed. It's honestly really crazy how easy it is to edit these articles. The worst part of it all is the fact that anything can be changed, by anyone. The site brought me to an article about some Indian town and I literally was able to edit the article and make it say that Connor Nally founded the town. Don't believe me? Look at the screenshot I took below this (Read the last sentence).
Features
Do i need to say any more about the features of the site??? Its basically a potentially completely incorrect online database. If you want to be famous just go ahead and put yourself as the President of the United States and there ya go, according to Wikipedia you are now our fearless president. That is, of course, until someone flags it as incorrect and they change it. This would hopefully be quick, but I don't have the answer to that. I have seen some pretty funny changes over the years I just didn't know how easy it was to do so. After the 2016 NBA Finals someone changed Steph Curry's father to LeBron James, so yeah, I got a kick out of that one.
Another feature or update that Wikipedia has made is a formatting tool within the editing toolbar. They now have a link wizard that allows you to link pages together. For example, when you click on the link wizard you are able to easily create a link to another Wikipedia page. They have also created a wizard that allows you to create tables within the form almost seamlessly.
Evaluation
This could be potentially terrible for a company or organization. Could you imagine if someone were to look up your business on Wikipedia and seeing some completely false information that was harmful to the business? I'm thinking that if someone was really petty and didn't like the product or service they might use their account to bash the company. You see this type of behavior on certain sites/apps where they want customer reviews. Sometimes if you look on Yelp or even Facebook you can see angry or frustrated customers really going off about a lack of customer service. I think that as a business it would be smart to have Wikipedia monitored to ensure there is no false information is coming onto the site.
Wikipedia is basically an online database that contains information about just about anything that you want to know or research. This database includes information about businesses and that is how we tie the subject of Wikipedia back to our business class. The problem that Wikipedia can solve for a business person is essentially a point of reference for potential customers. If a customer is looking to buy a product and they want to know more about the product from an in-depth perspective they can go to Wikipedia and learn all about the product or the business.
The issue with Wikipedia is the fact that most of the information that is included on the site is user-generated or edited by people with an account. For all of our lives that we have been in school we have all head to write the dreaded research paper. In the guidelines or rubrics, you always see the rules that you are not allowed to cite any sources from Wikipedia. If a businesses Wikipedia page accurately explains the business and gives all correct information, then there is no problem. The problem exists when people edit the pages and they do so in a manner that doesn't represent actual fact.
Use of the site
Once you make an account within Wikipedia they immediately give you the ability to edit articles. They actually set you up with a starter article that is flagged as an article that needs updating. The articles have banners that show specifically what needs to be fixed. It's honestly really crazy how easy it is to edit these articles. The worst part of it all is the fact that anything can be changed, by anyone. The site brought me to an article about some Indian town and I literally was able to edit the article and make it say that Connor Nally founded the town. Don't believe me? Look at the screenshot I took below this (Read the last sentence).
Features
Do i need to say any more about the features of the site??? Its basically a potentially completely incorrect online database. If you want to be famous just go ahead and put yourself as the President of the United States and there ya go, according to Wikipedia you are now our fearless president. That is, of course, until someone flags it as incorrect and they change it. This would hopefully be quick, but I don't have the answer to that. I have seen some pretty funny changes over the years I just didn't know how easy it was to do so. After the 2016 NBA Finals someone changed Steph Curry's father to LeBron James, so yeah, I got a kick out of that one.
Another feature or update that Wikipedia has made is a formatting tool within the editing toolbar. They now have a link wizard that allows you to link pages together. For example, when you click on the link wizard you are able to easily create a link to another Wikipedia page. They have also created a wizard that allows you to create tables within the form almost seamlessly.
Evaluation
This could be potentially terrible for a company or organization. Could you imagine if someone were to look up your business on Wikipedia and seeing some completely false information that was harmful to the business? I'm thinking that if someone was really petty and didn't like the product or service they might use their account to bash the company. You see this type of behavior on certain sites/apps where they want customer reviews. Sometimes if you look on Yelp or even Facebook you can see angry or frustrated customers really going off about a lack of customer service. I think that as a business it would be smart to have Wikipedia monitored to ensure there is no false information is coming onto the site.
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