Wikipedia All Day
I can’t seem to get off this Wikipedia topic. I’ve been depending on it as a pretty reliable source for getting quick information on things I’m unfamiliar with, and since I felt a need to defend the site, I was so glad to read the October 16th posting, Wikipedia is the best thing ever. Period.
Research doesn’t have to be so overwhelming, laborious and time consuming, thanks to the Internet and Wikipedia. When someone mentions the Baltimore Speakers Series and you don’t know what she is referring to, look it up on Wikipedia and see if it’s up there. Who knows and who knows what else? That’s the beauty of this thing.
We are all looking for information, and a team effort in the digital world is revolutionary. Wikipedia is a huge collection of topics, information and links that should be available to all of us. Sure, there are grammatical errors and other disruptions, but in the big window Wikipedia is a great source and I love it. Sure, it forces us to look for other resources because of all that “truthiness” stuff. But shouldn’t we be digging and getting different perspectives from different resources anyway? I think so.
With RSS feeds kicking into high gear, consistently giving information to individuals on select topics, the need to search isn’t so apparent. But let Wikipedia remind us all that we can’t forget about Google!
At the rate we’re moving today in terms of technology, language, medical advancements, etc., it’s about time we develop a public database and work as a team to document a collection of valuable information that’s easy to access and update. I struggled with Wikipedia’s self-proclamation, “The Free Encyclopedia,” for a long time, but it all makes perfect sense to me now. Imagine a free encyclopedia that is constantly used, edited, discussed and updated as often as a status changes in the world of Facebook.
Why NC Central University Should Step Up the Wikipedia Game
As an NCCU alumna, I’d like to see my alma mater rise above the stereotypes of Historically Black Colleges/Universities and Wikipedia. NC Central is a nationally accredited university with one of the best Law School’s in America and an award winning print and online campus newspaper, Campus Echo. With such a strong focus on community service and a clear mission to prepare students academically and professionally to become leaders, NCCU should definitely step up the Wikipedia game.
While analyzing the edits contributed by people who are connected to NCCU, I found plenty of disruptions, including grammatical errors and silly insertions. Central’s disturbances to Wikipedia stand out since there are only 168 contributions from the school—not many compared to neighboring school, Duke University, which is connected to over 10,000 contributions.
NCCU is a leading, influential university and even though we can’t fully trust the site, Wikipedia should be taken seriously given its popularity. Tons of people rely on information from Wikipedia, so the site is yet another dimension of learning, a community movement, where good character and integrity win. Corrupting information on Wikipedia related to the Arab-Israeli Conflict and Decolonization should not be part of NC Central’s agenda because it misrepresents the university.
In fact, it doesn’t appear that NCCU has an agenda regarding Wikipedia. Even though the school’s page is part of Wikipedia Project University, Project Durham, and Project North Carolina, Central has made no major efforts to get its ‘Start-Class’ rated page up to par. Only 12 small contributions to the academics, external links, notable alumni and executives sections have been made to NCCU’s page, by NCCU.
Most NC Central contributions to Wikipedia focus on updating the pages of hip-hop and r&b artists, producers and songs. That’s cool, but thank goodness no one judges NCCU’s priorities based on Wikiscanner evidence! I felt a sigh of relief when I came across two cases of NCCU edits that removed vandalism/profanity. I was also impressed with the edits made to Charlotte, North Carolina, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools and the Charlotte/Douglas International Airport since they support Project North Carolina.
So, in an effort to make Wikipedia a more trustworthy site and to instill internet etiquette (still a new concept) in all students who attend my alma mater, North Carolina Central University should value its opportunities on Wikipedia and take charge. The Campus Echo has started an excellent path for NCCU’s credibility online, but I think it’s time for us Eagles to spread our wings.
“Truthiness” and Other Mess
Who is a teacher? Who is an expert? Who are we to believe either of them? And heck, where can the truth be found and what in the world are facts?
I remember an incident that happened thirty some years before I was born. My dad, then an elementary school black kid in the mid-1950s, sat in his class full of white students in Los Angeles, California only to look up to his teacher’s finger pointed straight at him and hearing the factual sounding statement, “You are a Negro. You have no history.” Remembering this incident, my dad began to question every authority, teacher, book and word that he heard or read.
I’m still struggling with the concept of this “truthiness” term that Stephen Colbert plays around with to describe what people know without the help of evidence, facts, or intellectual thought. It’s funny because I make up words as they are needed, and I love to throw a “ness” on the end of just about anything, but never would I have thought of coining the term “truthiness.” The truth in itself has always been blurred for me as the daughter of an African-American studies/political science professor who questions and challenges what is represented as the truth in culture, politics and history. What we choose to accept as the truth must always be questioned, researched and verified before it gets buried under a lie. With that being said, I can only accept the term “truthiness” as a “temporarish” word, representing the twisted, endless road to the truth. “Truthiness” must be the first step in arriving at some agreeable conclusion, but it certainly can’t be the last.
All this talk about “truthiness” reminds me of writing research papers at William G. Enloe High School and North Carolina Central University. Of course all papers required sources and teachers made it clear that using the internet was not acceptable, unless the author could be proven reputable. I wondered how any author could be trusted for that matter. The complete history of black Americans was left out of all of my U.S. History textbooks and if I hadn’t been encouraged to think for myself I’d still believe everyone who said Christopher Columbus discovered America. Ha!
On top of all this mess, there’s 9/11. We certainly can’t just accept what history books have to say about the devastation that occurred that day. Sure enough, information is leaking that suggests our government had something to do with the terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center. Do a little of your own research on YouTube or just google the mess out of 9/11 and see what you find.
And when you find something you like, go ahead and add it to Wikipedia if it’s not there already. Why not? We’re all googling and searching for the truth anyway. Just keep in mind that no one can be trusted and we all have to think for ourselves whether we believe in “truthiness” or not. Darn.
Do You See Any Signs of a World Wide War?
Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq said to Congress, “war is not only being fought on the ground in Iraq but also in cyberspace.” If we’re not smart, this world wide web could become a world wide war. I’m talking about internet addicts and dummies-everyone in the whole wide world needs to watch out. And what about older people who are not computer literate and, therefore, less informed about the dynamics of the internet? Do these people, as well as the addicts’, simply believe what political elites tell them? Or do they think for themselves?
People are using the internet in China, Korea, the Phillipines and Africa. There are people online all around the world sending quick messages and getting information fast on computers, laptops, hand held devices and ear pieces. This is really changing our behavior as human beings. Many of us are running out of patience, sharing our private information, and becoming literally attached to the web and lost in the world of cyberspace.
Wow, U.S. forces are on a mission to attack Iraq’s internet connection! But internet connections can be restored at the click of a mouse and Iraq continues to use the web as a major media outlet, just as other countries do. The U.S. is pretty bold to try to cut the wires of the world wide web, don’t you think?
It looks to me like we need to work at creating some type of massive understanding of www. The Bill of Rights for the Internet would be a good start at laying out laws for this messy web. At least people in the United States would feel a little more comfortable about their personal rights and information online. But all I can really see is potential of a bigger problem in the distance.
Don’t Leave Hip-Hop When It’s in Trouble
I have hip-hop on my mind, as I often do, because I am hip-hop. I grew up with hip-hop, listening to people like Da Brat, Lil Kim, Nas, Jay-Z, Biggie and Tupac, to name just a few. I’m guilty of writing down lyrics and memorizing songs in junior high school because I loved hip-hop. In high school I listened to freestyle battles at lunchtime and on the bus. I’d like to testify that I have gone to college and have a good job with my hip-hop.
The loudest voice in today’s black community gets a bad rap, which disappoints me. A lot of rappers have gone from talking about guns and violence to flaunting their money, cars, and clothes. Some rappers talk about selling drugs and degrade women by calling us bitches and hoes and some say “money over bitches,” and rhyme about pimping women.
People seem to pay most attention to the bad rap, and for all the wrong reasons. I pay attention to the affects of slavery, destroyed families, segregation and poverty on black people that are overlooked, but well represented in hip-hop. Curse words and materialism distract many people from hearing messages that are essential in understanding the African American position today.
The fact is, many black males are failing in school and going to prison at an alarming rate, and I’ll step out there and say that nearly all of them want to be rappers or involved with the entertainment industry somehow. More black women are succeeding in the professional world than black men and the gap is increasing. Collectively, black women are uplifting the statistics of the black community with our hip-hop and hope for more opportunities given to black men with no role models.
Many black women still have not given up on hip-hop. Never would I abandon black men under any circumstances because I am hip hop. When I listen to rap I hear black people with high aspirations who use similes, metaphors, word play and yes, profanity and slang to describe their lives. Why stop recording history? Hip-hop is my soul and it represents the African American dilemma of my generation and I’ll rap it, dance to it, and blast it in my car as long as it lives.
This blog was inspired by the editor’s note in the September 2007 edition of Vibe Vixen.
