The Most Important Site on The Internet
I believe that Wikipedia is the Most Important Site on the Internet.
Let me explain…
The Point of the Internet
What’s even the purpose of the internet? Why's it such a big deal?
To me, the point of the Internet is: to provide a medium to share ideas, regardless of who you are or where you come from.
I like this definition because it holds true across all sorts of use cases for the Internet.
Wanna send your buddy across town a message? How about your cousin across the country? How about a pen pal across the ocean?
Boom. Email. Done. Thanks Internet.
Wanna learn something about a niche topic? How about a forum? How about an explainer video? How about a blog?
Boom. Knowledge. Done. Thanks Internet.
Wanna buy something? Wanna sell something? Wanna trade something?
Boom. Craigslist. Done. Thanks Internet.
Equal Opportunity Access to Ideas
Let’s define “Idea” broadly. An Idea could be a thought from an individual. It could be a rule mandated by a government. It could be a story published by an author. It could be a movie. It could be a song. It could be a photo. It could be a recipe. It could be a memory. It could be advice. It could be something tangible. A board game, a paperback book, a vinyl record, a t shirt, a laptop are all physical manifestations of Ideas.
If one human brain is the origin and another human brain is the destination, an Idea is the vehicle that connects one to the other.
The United States has a federal law that prohibits “unfair treatment because of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability or genetic information.” This is colloquially known as “equal opportunity employment.”
The Internet, as a fundamental system, provides Equal Opportunity Access to Ideas.
Sure, there can be gatekeeping at the individual site level. But to apply that to the Internet as a whole is silly. That’s like saying, there’s a racist person who lives in that house, therefore houses cause racism.
As a fundamental system, the Internet doesn’t care what country you live in. It doesn’t care where your ancestors came from. It doesn’t care about what’s between your legs.
This capacity to connect anyone to anyone else is what makes the Internet so powerful.
So why is Wikipedia so important then?
Wikipedia exists to share knowledge
“Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge. That's what we're doing.”
— Jimmy Wales, Founder of Wikipedia, 2004 (Source)
Wikipedia says about itself: “Wikipedia's purpose is to benefit readers by acting as a widely accessible and free encyclopedia” and that “the goal of a Wikipedia article is to present a neutrally written summary of existing mainstream knowledge in a fair and accurate manner with a straightforward, just-the-facts style.”
The point of Wikipedia isn’t to make money. The point isn’t to become famous. The point isn’t to promote some specific ideology.
The point of Wikipedia is to share knowledge with anyone and everyone — to provide Equal Opportunity Access to Ideas.
Wikipedia is editable by anyone
Anyone can add content. Anyone can remove content. Anyone can modify content. If you have an Internet connection, you can contribute to Wikipedia.
Even in the situations where certain pages are “protected”, Wikipedia isn’t taking away someone’s voice. They’re simply enforcing a guideline that requires a user to earn trust before modifying certain content.
In general, anyone can modify wikipedia, once they register for an account (gasp) and establish a contribution history.
This means that anyone can have a voice. Nobody is silenced by Wikipedia.
Wikipedia is transparent
If anyone can modify Wikipedia, how can you trust its content??
Yes, the self stated purpose of Wikipedia is to create a free source of knowledge that anyone and everyone can access.
Yes, Wikipedia can be modified by anyone, giving everyone a voice, and silencing no one.
But the glue that holds this all together is transparency.
Want to see a previous version of an article? Check the edit history to see the who, what, when, and why for every single modification.
Want to understand why a change was (or wasn’t!) made? Check out the Talk page for that article.
Want to contribute to Wikipedia in a way consistent with the spirit of the community goals? Check out the many guidelines, complete with examples and clarifications.
Wikipedia will have incorrect information. That’s inevitable for a project of this nature and of this size.
But thanks to its transparency, I know what Wikipedia is trying to be. Thanks to its transparency, many claims have links to primary/secondary sources. Thanks to its transparency, I can see the details behind how its content is created, allowing me to better understand possible ways the human contributors may have been biased, confused, or naive.
This transparency empowers me to do my own critical thinking while consuming content. I don't need to tell you how hard it can be to do that when using other Knowledge Fountains on the Internet.
Wikipedia is one of the most reliable sources of information on the Internet. A convincing argument could even be made that Wikipedia is the single most reliable source of information accessible to humans via any medium.
Other options
If Wikipedia is not the Most Important Site on the Internet, then what is?
A search engine? Google Search, the most visited website in the world?
A large social networking site? Facebook? Linkedin? Reddit?
A government website? An intergovernmental organization like the United Nations?
A marketplace? Amazon? Ebay? Craiglist?
A media site? Youtube? Twitch? Netflix?
The more I try to think of sites that can compete with Wikipedia, the more convinced I become that Wikipedia is indeed the Most Important Site on the Internet.
All these alternatives are too narrow in scope. Too focused on catering to a particular demographic. Too influenced by other incentives, like profit. Too limited by the subset of people who can contribute. Too opaque about the how/what/why of their content.
Google Search was the only site that I had to really consider. While it is very influenced by profit, and does get a lot of hate, Google Search is one of the most widely used, most valuable tools available to humans today. But ultimately, a search engine is simply a tool to, well, search the Internet.
A site that actually has content will always be More Important than a site that only finds content.
None of these alternatives do a better job at fulfilling the purpose of the Internet: to provide a medium to share ideas, regardless of who you are or where you come from.
Am I wrong?
Maybe.. I wonder what Future Sam will think of this opinion.
I wonder what you will think of this opinion.
Agree? Disagree? Write a blog post about it, and send me a link!