Monday, February 24, 2014

Weakening Wikipedia?

This article in the New York Times notes that only 1% of Wikipedia article contributions are made via smartphones. It notes that "mobile users are much more likely to read a Wikipedia article than improve it." This is cause for concern because as people use smartphones, and only smartphones, to access media and information, the fear is that phone design that encourages "consumer behavior" and not "creative behavior" will necessarily impact the breadth and  depth of contributions.

Indeed, one source notes "that as the screens used to read news or social media have become smaller, the screens of the so-called creative class have gotten bigger — often two screens together — for writing or designing or coding. The smaller screens of smartphones and tablets do not lend themselves to research and taking notes, or writing long encyclopedia entries."

It seems that the democratic, crowd-sourced idea behind Wikipedia that was made possible through technology could be narrowed be that technology's continued fast-paced evolution.

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