Collaboration is the Strength of the New Communications Media

Among the better examples of the disruption new media can cause to old media is the rise of Wikipedia, the online and continuously updated encyclopedia. Some have criticized the site for its lack of editorial supervision, but the site is far more honest and accurate than most would admit. It's a worldwide collaboration, and its tracking of revisions and the discussions around them are all documented. Some of these discussions can be more valuable than the final posting, and they're there, warts and all, for all to see. Wired has an article discussing many of the issues surrounding Wikipedia and how its entries are challenged and recorded.

Like I would never suggest that a student rely solely on an Encyclopedia Britannica entry in its printed volume, neither would I recommend that Wikipedia be a sole source. But I have not found anything more accessible, so good at pointing to other resources, and so adept at identifying and analyzing opposite points of view. Where print was a sign of completion or authoritative finalization, Wikipedia has freedom from the tyranny of the printed page, including its costs, its deadlines, and its decay. It's known especially for its range of current topics, especially in popular culture, areas that would not be addressed as quickly or as seriously in any printed encyclopedia of record. When entertainer and entrepreneur Merv Griffin died a week or so ago, within minutes, someone had updated his Wikipedia entry. No one ran around in libraries pulling the ?G? volumes off the shelves, hurriedly penciling in ?died 2007? under ?Griffin, Merv,? if he was even there.