Jimmy Wales is a well-known entrepreneur, who founded freely licensed encyclopedia: Wikipedia. The large part of his motive for inventing this online encyclopedia is, according to his speech for TED talk, his interest in digital divide. This issue is thought to be one of the problems to be solved in this information society, where it is getting more and more important and necessary to have good enough information of high quality immediately so one makes a good decision and lives a better life. In this sense, Wikipedia can potentially be a key as it is widely open to the public: everyone can add, delete, or edit the content, and articles, much more read them.
However, it is true that some people are doubtful about the reliability of Wikipedia, as anyone could potentially manipulate the information Wikipedia provides. Interestingly, the reality is apparently different as Wales said. The administrators all over the world, though they are just volunteers, are more careful than vandalism and Wikipedia is going to maintain its quality of information. Of course, Wikipedia is not for research: not academic enough as almost everyone agrees, but some research has revealed that Wikipedia is good enough as an encyclopedia.
In conclusion, Wikipedia may be a great invention that tackles digital divide. This encyclopedia is meant to provide everyone with quality information equally. In addition, this project may be developed into a textbook, which seems highly intriguing.
I think it interesting that Wikipedia may tackle digital divide.
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