My 13-yr old came home the other day and said that he left his science book at school, but it was ok because he could see it online. Apparently their textbook vendor has placed their books online. I thought of that as I read that California is doing the same thing. It makes looking for information in a text book much easier because of the search capabilities instinctive to computers.
The focus of chapter three was on tools like Wikipedia, the user-created encyclopedia. The relatively few people who have heard of Wikipedia detract from it stating that it can be udpated by anyone, so it can't possibly be considered reliable. However, the authors point out that because anyone can edit it, inaccuracies are uncovered and corrected more quickly than conventional encyclopedias. While it is wise to read and verify, it is overreacting to consider it without merit.
I recently used Wikipedia to look up the definition of Web 2.0 before I got my copy of Wikinomics. There were many entries, but the first actually provided a very thorough description. I am sure this is just the tip of the iceberg. Who knows? Maybe some day I will be a contributor to Wikipedia and I can be corrected with the best of them...and the rest of them.
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