Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia that many students and teachers use for research. I have used Wikipedia many times for research. I have always assumed that the information was unbiased and based on facts. Virgil Griffith a California college student has created the Wikipedia Scanner which has the ability to trace the virtual fingerprint left behind by computers. He has discovered that many companies and government agencies has accessed some Wikipedia articles and actually changed the information they contained. Therefore altering the integrity of the information and the website this make the information useless for research purposes.
NPR article explains how anyone is able to make changes to the articled posted on Wikipedia. This new technology can show who is altering the information and what changes their making. It seems to me that the company behind Wikipedia would be out raged and take action to secure the site and the integrity of the information published on it. One of the people on the podcast suggested that this was beneficial for the integrity of the work published on this site. But I do not agree because that means anyone can change the information to what they feel it should say. Altering the unbiased opinion of those who originally wrote the work.
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