About My Term Research Paper

My research paper was entitled "Wikipedia - The Most Trusted Research Database authored by the Average User". As it says in the title the paper was mostly about Wikipedia's past, present, and future, the impact it had on different facets of society, and my personal opinion of the web site. I chose my topic because we (and by "we" I mean, at least, me), as savvy Internet users, use Wikipedia almost everyday for research, whether it be for school, work, or just plain fun. I scoured the web for reputable journals or experiments done that had to directly with Wikipedia or an aspect of Wikipedia that was relevant to its purpose. I also included some Internet news articles of the same nature as the scholarly sources. Through my research of Wikipedia I've learned a lot about its history, the drastic effect wikis have made on Internet research, the causes/effects of open-source software, and much more. The research paper has made me re-appreciate Wikipedia in much better light. Before I began my paper I assumed a few notions about Wikipedia. One of them was that Wikipedia has pretty much replaced the need for the public library system outside of containing a database of academic journals within its website. There was one study I found that concluded the Internet has not affected library usage as significantly as I thought. I'm still skeptical of that because of my own bias but I'll accept the statistical findings. Information on a topic that can be found almost anywhere can be found on the Wikipedia, let alone the Internet. Of course, I'm aware that Wikipedia hasn't always been the most credible website and there are some flaws with the system as with any. Understanding why something so anarchistic, yet effective enough to satisfy a great demand had been left untapped by the desire to profit from it motivated me to find out what makes Wikipedia tick. A significant conclusion that I found was that Wikipedia was surveyed against Encyclopedia Britannica, which concluded Wikipedia was on par with E.B. in terms of wholeness and credibility. I had heard of multiple news articles reporting on this study at the time but I did not feel the need to find out if it was true (I figured I'd take their word for it). The biggest contribution to "new media" would have to be the concept of open-source software. As human beings we tend to take things for granted when it doesn't cost us a thing to acquire it. This "market" for free software has an unusual trade-off system that is rarely found outside of charities and non-profit organizations: goods and services traded for what essentially is the mere ownership of property and "bragging rights". Of course, some open-source software is developed with the noble idea of advancing humanity. I do have a good collection of free software that I use almost everyday thanks to generous and talented programmers who take the monotony and excruciating effort to write code for the masses.