Well, we’ve been told all throughout college, and especially in library school, that Wikipedia is not a reliable source. Yes, it is a jumping off point, but it is in no way the end result for finding information on a particular subject. And why is that? Well, user-generated content is susceptible to tampering. Anyone can change the information at any time, if they are a wiki-editor. Plus people can enter their biases – and if it isn’t fact-checked right away, those leanings are left for others to read as gospel.
But, Wikis are awesome places for specific information. One of my favorites is the Birmingham, Alabama Wiki. It has a lot of great local info, and I have found out a lot of random, previously-never-heard of folklore about the area by going down a rabbit hole on the site. Although she has outgrown the subject, my daughter was previously SUPER into My Little Pony. Since she was buying comic books and watching the show, my husband and I were somewhat sucked into the story line. (I know, I know.) We found the My Little Pony Wiki was immensely helpful, and answered all of my girl’s questions about the characters or the plot lines that related to the show or comic. And, the nerd in me loves WikiBooks. Open access! To books!
As someone who believes in open access to information, wikis are a wonderful resource. They give the internet-everyman power to create subject guides on whatever they want. Should you check their sources? Absolutely. But intrinsically, the idea of the wikispace is a platform for open access and allows the creator license to make something that they see as worthy information to share with the public. If you believe that information is power, and information should be transparent and shared with the masses, wikispaces are a great place to start. Look at this list. Aren’t they fun? There are wikis you didn’t even know you needed.
SLISing 
Fantastic blog post! I think Wikipedia is made even more valuable if you “follow the links” and those links take you to open-access scholarly resources. Thank you for including the Birmingham Wiki! What a great resource that could be in a classroom or for college students (especially studying civil rights; the pictures alone from that era on the wiki are amazing) – I’m definitely bookmarking it for future use. I like your post because you show that a balanced perspective is needed about socially-based technology. Yes, issues exist, but if we acknowledge those issues and then look at the positive effects like transparency and open access, we don’t just dismiss a tool which benefits many people.
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Although Wiki’s have been around for a while, the information that it provides is great. Just needs to be fact checked. With that being said, I wish that more professors and teachers would explain their reasoning behind their distrust in Wiki. During my undergrad, I was always told to complete a project but Wikipedia could not be one of the resources.
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