Week 9 - Wikis, Wikipedia, Wikibooks, and Collaborative Writing

Wikibooks and wikipedia are gaining popularity as they are used both as references online, but are also used as a forum for discussion and collaboration online. Several facts and statistics regarding WikiBook were very surprising to me....I was surprised when I heard the statistics that only about 2.5% of Wikibookians are female; although females dominate the number of blogs. Most Wikibookians are relatively young, although the fact that many are educationally-oriented and pursuing a college degree seems to be rather intuitive. There are many differences between how Wikibook novices and experts think about Wikibook and how they used WikiBook; such as that novices usually make superficial, technical edits, while experts make broader content modifications. I was surprised that many novice Wikibookians are motivated by the idea of publishing, since Wikibook is a largely anonymous forum; but that Wikibook experts often publish for the greater good of learning.

Many people are predicting (or hoping!) that Wikibooks will eventually overtake traditional textbooks for educational use, but I don't see that happening anytime soon. Many of the common criticisms of WikiBook are exactly what will keep WikiBook from becoming a dominant force in educational reading. The quality is too widely varied that it is a difficult resource to depend on, and since no one is really in charge on WikiBook, there are no mechanisms to ensure the validity of WikiBooks; although the content is usually quite good.

I think that as long as Wikibooks are recognized for what they are, as a good supplemental resource, and that users understand the limitations of them, they will continue to grow in popularity and use, but will not overtake textbooks.