Wikipedia

I love Wikipedia.

According to Wikipedia, "Wikipedia is a multilingual, Web-based free content encyclopedia project." Think of a huge encyclopedia on the Net that anyone can edit when they see errors or ommisions, and you're thinking about Wikipedia.

Wikipedia is a perfect example of what many people call New Media, because anyone can contribute to the articles. This scares a lot of people. How can you trust the articles? How do you know they're accurate?

Well, it turns out that Wikipedia is fairly accurate on most topics that aren't controversial, such as science or history. When a topic is controversial, discussions take place about the authenticity of the information. Think of it as an online encyclopedia where the writers have open debate about accuracy.

If you haven't seen Wikipedia, I recommend you take a look at it. It's a great resource for general information and it works well as a starting point for the discussion of New Media.