Thing #8: Stretch

I love using Wikipedia especially when I am creating power point presentations for my students. It gives a lot of information and I can just cut and paste it into my presentation. It is also very well organized and has links included in the document to get more information. It was great to see that Wikipedia had some ground rules for people wishing to make comments such as: "Be polite, Assume good faith, Avoid personal attacks, and Be welcoming.

Even though Michael Jackson has been dead for a little over two months now, his name enters many students conversations on a weekly basis. Having grown up with Michael Jackson and the "Jackson 5", I was really impressed with the large amount of information that was listed. It included every aspect of Michael Jackson's journey through being the "King of Pop."

Looking at the information under the discussion tab, it was interesting to find the following quote: "While Biographies of living persons policies do not apply directly to the subject of this article, this article may have content that directly relates to other living persons, such as friends and family. Controversial material about living people that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately. If such material is re-inserted repeatedly, or if there are other concerns related to this policy, please see the biographies of living persons noticeboard. " This is the first time that I had looked at the Discussion tab, and was really impressed that Wikipedia wanted to ensure its readers that controversial material would be removed immediately in regards to living persons as such as friends and family. I was also impressed that Wikipedia went on to further say that: "This is not a forum for general discussion of Michael Jackson." Any such messages will be deleted or refactored. Please limit discussion to improvement of this article. I could see people posting inappropriate comments or information that would only hurt friends, family, and other readers. I also found it interesting that "Michael Jackson's religion was nominated for deletion. The debate was closed on 12 October 2009 with a consensus to merge."

Looking at the history tab was also very insightful. Even though Michael Jackson has died, they have made numerous revisions as late as November 1, 2009. I applaud Wikipedia for keeping the information current and ensuring that they are posting factual information.