Some Thoughts on Wikis

Up to now, my knowledge of wikis extended only to Wikipedia, and I only knew of that through my teens, who had been using it with more regularity for schoolwork. And then there was the controversy, and teachers not allowing the use of Wikipedia for schoolwork.

And then there was Colbert, and the power to the people aspect of Wikipedia, with all its anarchist potential.

It was intriguing to learn the origins, and the many other uses, of wikis. I am a bit awed and/or wary of sites that are presenting "information" that anyone can change; I am far more comfortable with blogs, which are naturally going to be influenced by the leaning of the blogger. That's the way it is, and we all (should) know that.

So I looked at the links to some wikis, and they made more sense, because there were limited users. It was as though they were written by committee, but over time and distance, at everyone's leisure. But I felt like I was missing the big picture, because I couldn't myself "wiki" -- an outsider looking in.

So I decided to take the plunge and wiki. On Wikipedia of course. It was a bit scary, knowing that I was making a little change that EVERYONE could see. Then I had to decide what I wanted to edit. Staring off into space, humming a bit. There has to be SOMETHING I know that isn't in Wikipedia.

I looked up the entry for Figs, and learned that it stands for French, Italian, German and Spanish. Okay, wrong figs, back to the drawing board. Try "Fig". Yes, there it is, the fruit. Now, what can I possibly know that nobody has entered yet. Varieties -- I actually own a Lemon Fig, bought it when it was tiny and now it is quite large and after I figured out how to deter the birds, the figs have been plentiful. But under varieties, there is no "Lemon Fig".

So I googled Lemon Fig, just because I did not want to be responsible for misinforming the world about figs, and found that there really truly is a "South Carolina Lemon Fig". Which is now in Wikipedia!

Funny though, that, because it was in Google, and looking every bit as official as -- as a Wikipedia entry, I assumed it was correct, and only just now checked to see that it was a site from the LSU Extension Division....