Wikis

In Assignment 8, it was interesting to learn about what exactly a wiki is. I think that they can be useful tools when your are in need of finding information on a particular topic or subject.
If you have knowledge about a given subject area, you can write an entry about it. If there is already an entry but it doesn't cover something, you can edit it to add your information.
The readers or members of a wiki are continually updating the site which quickly provides all users with new developments. Because of the way wikis work, they draw on the expertise of a very broad and very deep readership.
Even though wikis are a good way of gathering facts quickly and pooling expertise from a large number of people, they do have their disadvantages. Because anybody can write a wiki entry, there is very little in the way of editorial control, which makes a wiki site prone to being subjective or strongly influenced by opinion.
In a library setting, wikis would be good for Readers Advisory of for public opinions on certain topics or subjects. They would not be good for research or verification of hard facts due to their lack of editorial control or supervision of entries. This makes them doubtful as a valuable information source.