Chapter Four: Wiki or Walmart?

Richardson's description of a wiki world where laypeople, experts, and just about anyone who wants to are recording the annals of all of human knowledge is quite utopian. I get the practicality and the magnitude of wiki's power. I also understand why so many people go to Walmart--- it's convenient, a one stop shop, where you can find just about anything you need. It's so easy! So is wikipedia. I'm not saying that creating class wikis isn't a great way for students to write in a collaborative manner showing off their expertise on a number of subjects. I don't know, though, how it's much different than creating a blog giving everyone in the class access to edit. The book creation idea is grand. However, I can't bring myself to totally embrace the wiki. Call me shallow if you like, but I don't like how it looks. First impressions are important! Wiki pages are just bare, unformatted, and seem to have info all over the place. I find its look disruptive and unsettling. I will admit... the edit links that show up in wikipedia are somewhat thrilling. The power! I don't know anything about ants! Who gave me access to write whatever I wanted on this page about the life cycle of ants? But back to my Walmart metaphor, the more people involved in an enterprise, project, what have you, the more generic will be the product of that enterprise. That is true for many things... definitely for Walmart. They are willing to sacrifice specificity and creativity of design to attract a large (and ever-increasing) customer base. Wikipedia strikes me as the same soulless kind of enterprise--- surrendering the vessel's expertise so that everyone involved can participate. As more and more people use wikipedia for their research, where does that leave the true experts who have written wonderfully, detailed descriptions of their life's work on every subject under the sun (whether in real book, or online form)... What happens to their work when people stop using it for the convenience of a site like wikipedia? Like the Mom and Pop shops of yore, they will be replaced by the wikipedias and walmarts of the world. I just can't support that. If students are using wikipedia on their own in my class, that's fine. However, I'd rather teach students how to find the lesser known informational giants of the web.