20090429 -- The World of Wikis (1)

The World of Wikis

Do wiki communicaties spread fact or fiction?

Have you ever wondered which dog won the World's Ugliest Dog Contest last year or what the longest word in the English language is? Look no further than Wikipedia to find answers to these questions and many more.

Wikipedia is one of a number of sites called wikis, websites that allow anyone to write, add to or change a site's text. But, are wikis reliable sources of information? The jury is still out on that as not everyone is enamored of the sites.

Conversation A

Adam: I'm so glad to finally be finished with my research paper. I ended up finding a lot of great information on Wikipedia.

Beth: Wikipedia? Are you serious? Wikis have no credibility. Articles on those sites are full of inaccurate information.

Adam: I disagree. In fact, I am convinced that wikis are writers oversees all of the content.

Beth: Maybe, but just how qualified are these people? What if they really don't know much about a topic but write about it anyway?

Adam: That's possible, but the writing community has enough people involved that mistakes are caught quickly and revisions are made.


enamor v. 傾心
eg: Ken was so enamored by the beautiful woman that he asked her to have dinner with him.
eg: Tanya is enamored of this band from England.
eg: I have to say that I'm not enamored of the countryside.

credibility n. 可靠性
-> a belif to be true
eg: The politician lost credibility when the press revealed that he lied during his campaign.
eg: The negative news mightharm the credibility of the Prime Minister.
eg: Recalling the defective products actually increased the company's credibility.

oversee v. 監督
eg: He was hired to oversee the workers as they built the new shopping center.

qualified adj. 有資格的
eg: The skilled doctor was the only one at the hospital qualified to perform the difficult surgery.


wiki n. 維基

the jury is still out (idiom) (陪審團仍在庭外商議作出裁決) 某件事尚未有定案
the jury is still out on something
eg: The jury is still out on the performance of the salesman.


//== Chat room ==//

incompetent 沒有能力的/不能勝任的
competent
eg: He is incompetent at his work.

amateur 業餘從事者
-> less skilled

novice 新手

amateur photographer 業餘攝影師

//== More Info ==//

The first wiki was created in 1995 by Ward Cunningham. His WikiWikiWeb was used by software developers to create a library of software patterns. It still exists today.
On a big wiki like Wikipedia, thousands of pages change every day. During peak hours, 50 or more pages can be changing every minute. Wikipedia receives about 1.4 billion visits per month.