Wikipedia has reached the 1 million mark in user donations. Twenty dollars worth of that can be attributed to me. While many bash wikipedia as illegitimate source due to the fact that its results can be edited by anyone, the fact remains that it is a good place to find out information on a multitude of subjects. And the facts might not be so inaccurate. Studies have been done to monitor vandalism on wikipedia, and while the studies may be less than scientific, something should be said for wikipedia's online community. When Stephen Colbert, (the man who coined the term "truthiness"1) asked his viewing audience to alter the results for elephants to say that the population doubled within the last six months (despite the fact that the gestation period for an elephant is 22 months), the wikipedia community responded by locking the article and blocking out the misinformation. Perhaps a peer reviewed system may work. However, other topics of a more political or controversial nature such as the Republican Party, or abortion may be subject to the whim of opinion and misinformation. But if you are looking for information on quantum mechanics or Bob Vila, wikipedia may be the source for you.
1.) The word
truthiness, meaning "truth that comes from the gut, not books", has been named word of the year 2006 by Merriam-Websters. Truthiness also won
2005 word of the year honors by the
American Dialect Society