

Why I contribute to Wikipedia - stollercyrus
http://blog.knolcano.com/why-i-contribute-to-wikipedia

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D_Alex
Wikipedia is my charity of choice. No other entity (apart from perhaps Google)
has done so much to actualise the potential of internet and deliver so much
benefit to the world.

~~~
wahnfrieden
How much benefit does it bring to those who can't afford Internet access, let
alone basic human needs?

~~~
D_Alex
A hell of a lot, albeit indirectly. Let me give you a hypothetical example: an
engineer in a remote community in Indonesia needs to consider a water
purification plant, not something he had previous direct experience with. Do
this please: Google "water purification" and go to the Wikipedia article -
pretty good, isn't it?

It is as useful in health, environment, economics, education and a whole lot
of other fields. Have I convinced you?

~~~
wahnfrieden
Not really, to be honest. I know this argument, but do you have evidence? I'd
like it to be true, anyway.

A lot of the text in that article isn't particularly actionable. The cheaper
and simpler purification solutions could use more detailed information on how
to construct them and where to look for available tools, materials, or devices
(e.g. organizations which help distribute them, or existing things which can
be repurposed). That's not really the point of Wikipedia though, especially
since this some of this information needs to cater specially to each
geographical area.

As for the engineer who's looking to build a water purification plant, surely
the information on Wikipedia is not detailed enough to help significantly and
would pale in comparison to the other resources available to someone with the
means to build a plant in the first place.

~~~
wahnfrieden
Care to respond rather than downvote several of my posts without comment?

~~~
D_Alex
I did not downvote you, I was away from the computer for the last few hours.
However your comment is so disingenuous that I am wondering if you are
trolling. To wit:

\- "A lot of the text in that article isn't particularly actionable" - what
does this even mean? Does all of the text have to be actionable, let alone
particularly so, for it to be useful?

\- "...simpler purification solutions could use more detailed information on
how to construct them" - no, this would not be appropriate, Wikipedia is not
(yet) a detailed manual on how to do absolutely anything. But I think you
implicitly admit that a good starting point has been provided.

\- "...the information on Wikipedia is not detailed enough to help
significantly" - yes, it is, it gives you the background, explains the jargon
and provides hyperlinked references into whatever area you might need more
information on. Not quite sure what your definition of "help significantly"
could be here.

I will not be online for a couple of days, so if I have not convinced you,
let's agree to disagree.

