Can you trust Wikipedia?
Who doesn't rely on Wikipedia 鈥� at least once in a while 鈥� these days? But for those of us who do, here's a startling statistic: Wikipedians (those who write and edit the info we find at the online encyclopedia) are 鈥�80 percent male, more than 65 percent single, more than 85 percent without children, around 70 percent under the age of 30.鈥�
Wow. Talk about a world view.
The statistic above comes direct from "The Wikipedia Revolution: How a Bunch of Nobodies Created the World's Greatest Encyclopedia" by Andrew Lih, a former Wikipedia administrator.
In a lengthy critique of "The Wikipedia Revolution" for , researcher and blogger Evgeny Morozov writes, "Wikipedia鈥檚 potential lies in harnessing the 'wisdom of crowds'; however, those crowds are only as wise as they are diverse." And apparently they are not particularly diverse 鈥� at least not when it comes to gender, age, or family situation.
Does it matter? That, of course, is subject to debate. But it is certainly interesting聽 that 鈥� particularly in a day and age when Publishers Weekly's failure to include any female authors in their 10 Ten of 2009 list can still kick up 鈥� that this statistic about Wikipedians is not more widely commented upon.
So to go back to the question above: Can you trust Wikipedia? Morozov's answer: "Most of us have stopped asking and simply bookmarked it." Perhaps we should be a bit more inquisitive.
Marjorie Kehe is the Monitor鈥檚 book editor. You can follow her on Twitter at .
