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Wikipedia is a fascinating corner of the weba font of knowledge that leads to expected places. But as any teacher or professor will tell you, it's not a primary source. Use it as a jumping-off point, but scroll to the bottom and seek out original sources for the "truth."

Is that fair? Is Wikipedia indeed a repository for half-truths? It's a topic that Professor Amy Bruckman from the Georgia Institute of Technology's School of Interactive Computing has researched extensively and examines in her book Should You Believe Wikipedia?, out in 2022 from Cambridge University Press.

Her conclusions may surprise you. Ahead of a September keynote at IntelliSys 2021, we spoke to Professor Bruckman, a Harvard grad who holds a PhD from theMIT Media Lab, about how to test assumptionsand the definition of truth and existencein an era of misinformation.

Before we get to Wikipedia, your wider research focuses on the field of "social computing," which includes ethics, research, content creation and moderation, plus social movements. When did you first encounter web-based communities?[AB] Around 1990, I was a grad student at the MIT Media Lab and my friend Mike Travers showed me a model of MIT in a multi-user, text-based virtual world.He had programmed a bot of his advisor, Marvin Minsky. Virtual Marvin would automatically start off in his office in the Media Lab, walk across campus to a classroom, and deliver a lecture at the correct time Tuesdays and Thursdays, reading a chapter of his book, Society of Mind. It was magic. I was hooked.

And was that when you built your first multiplayer real-time world? [AB] Yes, that was when I built MediaMOO, a multi-user text-based world designed to be a professional community for media researchers. Then my dissertation project was a virtual world for kids called MOOSE Crossing, where kids built the world together and learned object-oriented programming and practiced their creative writing.

Many people have fond memories of using MOOSE Crossing as kids. In fact, there was something on NPR about it last year. But these were early days in collaborative computing. What were you running MOOSE Crossing and MediaMOO on? [AB] Well, this was before the invention of the web, and we were using computers running the UNIX operating system.The internet wasnt yet a mass medium, but we could see that it would be, and the potential was exciting.

Which brings us to Wikipedia. Many of us consult it, slightly wary of its bias, depth, and accuracy. But, as you'll be sharing in your speech at Intellisys, the content actually ends up being surprisingly reliable. How does that happen?[AB] The answer to "should you believe Wikipedia?" isn't simple.In my book I argue that the content of a popular Wikipedia page is actually the most reliable form of information ever created.Think about ita peer-reviewed journal article is reviewed by three experts (who may or may not actually check every detail), and then is set in stone. The contents of a popular Wikipedia page might be reviewed by thousands of people. If something changes, it is updated. Those people have varying levels of expertise, but if they support their work with reliable citations, the results are solid. On the other hand, a less popular Wikipedia page might not be reliable at all.

Because few people access that page, or know/care enough about the subject to correct/challenge them? Which brings us to the big ideas behind what is truth, and how we reach it. [AB] In my book and my talk at Intellisys, I try to teach everyone a bit of basic epistemology, and show how that helps us better understand the internet.I believe ideas like virtue epistemology can help us to improve the quality of the internet going forwards.

Okay, virtue epistemology is definitely a big idea. Give us a working definition, and how it applies to Wikipedia. [AB] Virtue epistemology suggests that knowledge is a collaborative achievement, and we all can work to achieve knowledge (justified, true belief) by aspiring to epistemic virtues: "curiosity, intellectual autonomy, intellectual humility, attentiveness, intellectual carefulness, intellectual thoroughness, open-mindedness, intellectual courage and intellectual tenacity." Being someone who is careful with knowledge is a lifelong quest, and trying to embody those virtues helps.

So if someone embodies those virtues, we expect them to be in pursuit of noble truth. But how do we know what is true? [AB] The real world exists, but is only knowable through our fallible senses.But that doesnt mean that reality is subjective.Am I sitting on a chair?You see it with your senses and I with mine, but we agree that there is something called a "chair," and I am sitting on one.The high degree of correlation between my subjective perceptions and your subjective perceptions is caused by the fact that the world existsthere's really a chair. The more people agree on something, the more we can be sure of it.And the more those people possess what we would call "reliable cognitive processes," the more we can be sure of it.So let's pick a harder example than my chair: Is human activity changing the climate?We know the answer is yes because a large number of people with reliable cognitive processes agree. Truth exists independent of the knower, but social consensus is our best way of figuring out what that truth is.

Most of us exist inside a bubble of similarly minded folks, which shores up our confirmation bias. Can you explain that concept with regard to Wikipedia too?[AB] Im not actually a climate scientist. I know that human activity is changing the climate because I have chosen sources I trust.And I interact with a community of people (in person and online) who share my views.When everyone around me believes that human activity is changing the climate, its easier for me to decide that its worth extra money to buy a car with a hybrid engine. I live in a bubble of like-minded folks.Thats good most of the time. I dont have to go get a degree in climatology before I go car shopping.But there are growing numbers of bubbles of people who share false beliefs, and reinforce those beliefs in one another.Thats a problem for the internet in general.

What happens with false beliefs on Wikipedia? [AB] Maybe the biggest surprise of the internet to me is that false bubbles generally are corrected on Wikipedia.Even if you pick a controversial topic like climate change or vaccination, the Wikipedia page typically reflects mainstream scientific consensus.Something about Wikipedia is working better than the rest of the internet, and I think we can learn from it as a positive model.

Can metadata help? [AB] Metadata is critical to the future of the internet. We all need help deciding what to believe. It would help a lot if information came with a reliability rating.But there's nothing easy about creating those ratings.We need both a method of judging what is reliable, and a financial model to pay for the process of creating those labels.

If Wikipedia is a good example of mass peer review, then it can also incorporate testimony to establish a baseline of truth, right? For example, I was invited by the USC Shoah Foundation, which was founded by Steven Spielberg, to see their recording of Holocaust testimonies for future generations. But eyewitness accounts often don't pass into 'truth' or are considered too subjective on Wikipedia. Is that when we have to urge people to look to wider sources? [AB] You need an intermediate layerinterpretation of primary sources by a Holocaust scholar. Thats the difference between a work of history and an encyclopedia.The job of a historian is to synthesize primary sources and form an interpretation.The job of an encyclopedia is to summarize work by historians and give you a list of links to go read if you want to learn more.

Wikipedia also asks us to educate ourselves, and then share that knowledge, as subject matter experts. Can you talk about your personal non-academic experience here?[AB] Editing Wikipedia can be a lot of fun.I used to help with the page on trash cans. The group of people working on the page had a long conversation about the words "bin" versus "can" and how the name for a waste receptacle varies around the world.Theres a mini-golf course near my parents' house, and the trash can is shaped like a dolphin.I added a picture of it to the article, and the next time I visited I showed the owner that his trash can was famous.The photo was there for a decade or so.Someone has since taken it down, sadly.But I enjoy contributing to something meaningful.Sometimes even things less silly than trash cans.

Finally, and this is going pretty deep, is any of this true? That's where, as you've pointed out, metaphysics comes in, and where we get to look up at the sky and wonder 'am I dreaming this life?' Discuss.[AB] One thing you learn quickly when you hang out with epistemologists is that truth exists. How we agree what that truth is can be tricky. But the affordances of internet technology are a surprisingly good fit for how knowledge is constructed.I think we can learn a lot from success stories like Wikipedia.And maybe apply those lessons to the design of the rest of the internet.

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Wikipedia: The Most Reliable Source on the Internet? - PCMag

The weirdest entries on Wikipedia, posted on one Instagram account.

Annie Rauwerda is a 21-year-old student at the University of Michigan who loves unearthing interesting screenshots from weird, dusty corners of the internet. When Covid-19 started, she had a lot of time on her hands to pursue this interest to the extent of making an Instagram account called @depthsofwikipedia, dedicated to finding the weirdest entries deep in the the internets encyclopedia, Wikipedia.

An example post on @depthsofwikipedia

If the pandemic never happened, I would have probably spent the summer of 2020 doing Biology research in Boston, but since my internship got cancelled, I was swimming in free time. I started the account because I was surprised it didnt already exist, says Rauwerda.

Jackson Weimer: What do you love about Wikipedia that made you want to make an Instagram account about its coolest/weirdest/strangest entries?

Annie Rauwerda: Wikipedia is this crazy internet utopia thats somehow escaped the claw of capitalism, and I never want to take it for granted. Its what the internet was supposed to be collaborative and constructive and democratic and untouched by ads. Its so inspiring that there are legions of volunteers that document all human knowledge for you and me to use for free, and I also am so continually excited by the sites accessibility. Anyone can edit. Theres this altruistic hacker ethos thats hard to find elsewhere.

@Depthsofwikipedia Instagram page,

Weimer: Have you made an edit to a Wikipedia page before? Is that something you would consider doing now?

Rauwerda: I didnt start editing until after I made the account, and now Im a huge proponent. Its a super rewarding and impactful hobby and you can find a great editing community online (Discord, mostly) and in person (there are groups in NYC and DC). I partnered with Wikimedia NYC to host an edit-a-thon in January geared toward beginners. The edits that were made have been viewed nearly 3 million times!

Weimer: What are some of the coolest things youve learned since making your account? Have you discovered any new interests or hobbies? Any notable celeb interactions in your comments?

Rauwerda: The account has given me an excuse to surf the information overload, and along the way Ive picked up about a bazillion fun facts. I also made it to the College Jeopardy live audition this year, and I dont think I would have made it past the first rounds of auditions had it not been for this Wikipedia habit. The celeb interactions are one of the most exciting parts of running the account. John Mayer is a huge fan and author Neil Gaiman once called the account genius. My ego rode on that for weeks!

@DepthsofWikipedia on IG

Weimer: Did any particular entry surprise you with how well it did?

Rauwerda: Early on, I didnt have a good grasp at the content that does well on Instagram. The trick, which I know now, is posts which are short enough to be share-able yet substantial enough to be memorable. And people love punchy, emotional posts involving animals like the article Alex (parrot).

The Alex (parrot) Wikipedia entry.

Weimer: What post led you to your account's first thousand followers?

Rauwerda: During the first few months of the account, I figured that my target audience was young smart people so I mass followed everyone who was active on the Stanford Class of 2024 Instagram account. What sent me into steady exponential growth was short-lived beef with influencer Caroline Calloway. She posted about the account after I posted a Wikipedia article saying her occupation was nothing. I woke up in the morning and my follower count had quadrupled! Now, were on friendly terms so friendly that she gave me a cat!!!

Weimer: Wait, what? Caroline Calloway gave you a cat because of your Wikipedia Instagram page? Elaborate.

Rauwerda: Yeah, she posted on Instagram that her assistant at the time needed a place to stay and I commented that I had a room available. Then, Caroline DMed me one day while I was in line at a boba shop and asked me if I could take one of her cats since she had two and they were not getting along. So, she just dropped off her beautiful Siamese cat at my place one day and now I have it.

Caroline Calloway's cat, which she gave to @depthsofwikipedia

Weimer: What do you think Wikipedia can change to stay afloat? Do you think they should hire you for their social team seeing as you have more followers than them?

Rauwerda: Wikipedia is a great place to give money, but nobody should feel a crushing obligation to donate. The whole point of Wikipedia is that it will always be free to everyone who wants it, and theyre not as desperate for funds as their pleading banners might suggest. That said, I give half the proceeds of merch to them and encourage all who are able to pitch in. Its the best site on the internet! Im friendly with most of their PR/social employees and whenever they release a new filter or have a big announcement, they ask me to share it. My actual dream would be to get a salary for making Wikipedia TikToks with high production value in the style of Planet Money, but I would probably do anything for Wikipedia.

Weimer: As a current college student, what has this experience taught you about what type of careers you might want to pursue?

Rauwerda: As a person, Im excessively curious and nearly incapable of thinking more than, like, two months into the future. And the result is that I tend to entertain a lot of interests. I took time off after high school to do Americorps and then I decided that I did, in fact, want to go to college. I went in undecided and chose to study Neuroscience thinking that it would be an interesting challenge. It definitely is, but Ive since realized that I dont want to be a Neuroscience researcher, so it would have been nice to have studied something like computer science or communications which is more marketable. But oh well! At least I know the names of a lot of enzymes. Since finding success on the account, working full-time in creative spaces writing, content creating feels far more accessible. Id love to work in media, specifically science communications. Im also a trained, certified Pilates instructor. I dont know if this is relevant but most people are surprised when I tell them, so I figured Id throw it in.

Weimer: What do you think Wikipedia will look like in 10 years?

Rauwerda: In terms of web page layout: exactly the same. In terms of editors: hopefully more diverse, thanks to ongoing editor recruitment projects like WikiProject Women in Red and AfroCrowd. In terms of influence: just as (if not more) crucial.

Weimer: What is the future of @depthofwikipedia?

Rauwerda: I recruited my best friend to help me run @depthsofamazon and we got it to nearly 40k in a few weeks. Were thinking about other depths to explore! Additionally, we have a podcast on the horizon. After that, who knows. I think a coffee table book of interesting Wikipedia articles would be cool to put together someday, and Id also love to make super cool merch (beyond just the simple mugs Im selling at depthsofwikipedia.com). Im trying to be more active on Tiktok they just put me an accelerator program which is supposed to incentivize me to post more on there.

The conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

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The Weirdest Entries On Wikipedia. Creator Spotlight: @Depthsofwikipedia - Forbes

If youre a regular visitor to Wikipedia, you may have seen a desperate plea pop up on the site, urging users for donations to keep the encyclopedia online.

The impassioned pitch for cash gives the impression that the site is struggling to stay afloat. But the reality is very different, as freelance journalist Andreas Kolbe elucidated in the Daily Dot last week.

In an eye-opening piece, Kolbe explains thatthe Wikimedia Foundation (WMF), which owns Wikipedia, is actually richer than ever before.

Kolbe, a former co-editor-in-chief of Wikipedias community newspaper, The Signpost, argues that the non-profitsrising revenues and record-breaking annual donations are easily sufficient to keep the site operating.

[Read:This dude drove an EV from the Netherlands to New Zealand here are his 3 top road trip tips]

Rather than needing cash to keep Wikipedia online and independent, Kolbe suggests the WMF wants to further boost its vast savings and fund a range of newprojects.

At the same time, the WMF is launching a for-profit company,which has caused concern among the sites volunteer writers, who work unpaid while some WMF staff receive six-figure salaries.

Kolbes analysis portrays an organization that can comfortably keep Wikipedia online without requiring donations from users in countries that have been hit hard by the pandemic. The piece is well worth a read if youre interested in the inner workings of Wikipedia, or merely want to ease an unnecessary sense of guilt.Find it here on the Daily Dot.

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Wikipedia is loaded, so whys it asking for donations? - The Next Web

Aussie women are playing a major part in a global effort to increase the number of biographical entries about religious women on Wikipedia.

Currently, less than 20 per cent of Wikipedias biographical entries are about women and less than 10 per cent of its editors are women.

One of the difficulties in creating Wikipedia articles for women is that there are fewer sources of information. Kerrie Burn

To response, The University of Divinity in Melbourne is taking part in a global project called 1000 Women in Religion, coordinated by the Womens Caucus of the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Biblical Literature. The aim is to add 1000 biographies of religious, spiritual and wisdom women to Wikipedia.

The Aussie contribution titled Australian Women in Religion Project is being coordinated by Kerrie Burn, librarian at the University of Divinitys Mannix Library. The aim is to create and edit 100 biographies about Australian women in religion, by the end of 2021. So far, the small team of around four regular contributors have created 54 entries, and are averaging around one entry per week.

Among the 54 new entries are Brooke Prentis, Indigenous Christian leader and CEO of Common Grace; Cecilia Dowling, a devout Christian and Temperance activist at the turn of the 20th Century; Gertrude Amy Roseby a Congregationalist lay leader and school owner; Mary Maria Andrews, a missionary and leading figure in Sydney Anglican diocese; and Tracey Rowland, a Catholic theologian who was appointed to Pope Francis International Theological Commission.

The efforts of Burns Australian group have also been boosted by other interested women who joined an edit-a-thon event in March this year. Another online edit-a-thon, held over Zoom, is scheduled for Wednesday, June 9, 2021 from 9am11am. This is designed to get people started, so they can continue adding biographies in their own time.

Theres not really that many Wikipedia editors out there, so its often something thats new to them. The more editors we have, obviously, the more new articles that we can get created, Burn tells Eternity.

Its quite a learning process and you have to really kind of keep your hand in. Otherwise it feels like you have to relearn things every time you come back to it So its good to be able to learn from people who are a bit further along the track or a bit more experienced in editing.

Burn has collated a list of around 500 Australian women in religion to draw upon, or biography creators can work on their own suggestions of women in religion.

Aside from the fact the entries can be time-consuming, Burn notes another issue facing those involved in the project.

One of the difficulties in creating Wikipedia articles for women is that there are fewer sources of information for women, she explains.

And so, alongside the 1000 Women in Religion Project, a series of Women in Religion reference books is being published by Atla Open Press (formerly American Theological Library Association).

The first volume in the series was about activists in religion and the next volume, which will be published soon, is about academics in the field of religion, says Burn.

I will be the editor for the third volume, which is about women that have been associated with the Parliament of the Worlds Religions. There will be two chapters about Australian women in this volume.

She adds: By researching and writing the chapters included in these volumes, the project is also creating reliable sources that can then be used to create Wikipedia articles.

This is definitely a long-term project, made easier by the more people that are interested in contributing. Kerrie Burn

While the task sounds daunting, Burn is reassured by the commitment that Australian women have shown to the project. She is confident the her team will reach their goal of creating 100 biographies of Aussie women in religion by the end of the year.

The Australian group has been very organised and we are being used as a model for other regional groups The fact that one of the next volumes in the Women in Religion series will be focussed on Australian women in religion is, I guess, also an indication of the progress that we have made to the overall project.

In saying that, Burn adds, This is definitely a long-term project, made easier by the more people that are interested in contributing.

After the first 100 biographies are completed, Burn plans to continue writing biographies for other women in her list of 500 Australian women in religion.

I just see it as an ongoing project that I might do into retirement, she says.

Many religious women have made extremely significant contributions to Australian life and culture, especially in areas such as education, social welfare, health care, activism, and scholarship. Yet many of these contributions are largely unrecognised.

By raising up these women we are helping to recognise their important work. As well as addressing this knowledge gap, in the process we are also addressing the gender imbalance on platforms like Wikipedia.

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Why its easy for Elise to love her neighbours in Newtown - Eternity News

U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson is a two-term Republican from Wisconsin, a staunch conservative who claimed the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot was "by and large" a peaceful protest and that he would have been more concerned for his own safety if it had been Black Lives Matter protesters instead. A former corporate CEO in Oshkosh, he's recently been accused of spreading misinformation about COVID vaccines.

He's also a native Minnesotan.

"Johnson was born in Mankato, Minnesota, the son of Jeanette Elizabeth (nee Thisius) and Dale Robert Johnson," reads his Wikipedia page. It says he graduated from Edina High School (wrongly, it turns out keep reading) and the University of Minnesota in 1977 (that part seems to be true).

Sensing that elusive local angle, I set out a few weeks ago to try to connect with some of Johnson's Edina classmates. I soon learned he didn't actually graduate from Edina a reminder that Wikipedia isn't always right. The bio on Johnson's U.S. Senate page provides clarity: "He gained early acceptance to the University of Minnesota, so he skipped his senior year of High School."

Still, surely some Edina contemporaries remember a future U.S. senator in their ranks? Well, no. I connected by phone or e-mail with more than a dozen Edina '73 grads, which would have been Johnson's graduating year.

"I don't remember Ron Johnson," said Curt Barton even though they are two of the four boys identified in a Latin Club picture from the '72 yearbook, when they were both juniors. The photo shows Johnson and two others stretching a classmate on a mock torture rack.

That Latin Club photo was courtesy of another classmate. She lives in the Eau Claire area now and said she's appalled by Johnson's politics, but didn't know until I told her that they were high school classmates.

That was common: Not only did classmates not remember him, they didn't know they went to school with a future senator.

Johnson's U.S. Senate spokesman did not respond to an e-mail seeking better leads on his Minnesota roots.

Johnson's junior class picture can be found in the '72 yearbook. Also in that class was one Jane Curler, now Jane Johnson; she and Ron were married in 1977.

"I did reach out to quite a few classmates and no one knew either of them!" Pamela Anderson, who organized the last class reunion, wrote to me in an e-mail. "Kind of crazy."

It does seem a bit unusual that a future politician didn't cut a wider social swath in high school. Think of the iconic picture of teenage Bill Clinton shaking hands with John F. Kennedy.

Most of the alumni I talked to stressed their class was big, at nearly 1,000 students. And it seems littered with success stories: Doctors, lawyers, business executives and entrepreneurs were among those I connected with.

The closest I got to the Johnsons was Paul Olson, a Chaska doctor.

"I knew Jane. I remember Jane," he said. "I don't know if she'd remember me. I don't remember much about her. And I don't I can't remember Ron."

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Wisconsin's Ron Johnson: native Minnesotan, but few remember - Minneapolis Star Tribune