KNOW IT ALL

In KNOW IT ALL Can Wikipedia conquer expertise? by Stacy Schiff, the topic of the use and creation of Wikipedia is discussed in great detail. Authority is defined as the trustworthiness, reliability, and appropriateness of something. In Schiff’s critique she ties in with Internet authority through her idea that there is error in Wikipedia through the Internet use of a wiki allowing everyone to share his or her information. The authority of the Britannica encyclopedia contains errors as well but the authority in this book is claimed to, “have a reputation not for unattainable perfection but for strong scholarship, sound judgment, and disciplined editorial review” (Schiff). The fact that anybody can make changes on the Internet steers it away from having authority. “there is no way to know which facts in an entry to trust”(Cauz). The Internet can be trusted to an extent but there is no verification of what specifically can be trusted without checking it amongst other sources other than the Internet. Knowledge Authority is held by anybody that has information no matter who they are, if it is correct and based upon an area that they know a lot about. For example I will know more about myself than anybody else, so I have the authority for that subject even though I am not a brilliant researcher. “a system that does not favor the Ph.D. over the well-read fifteen-year-old” (Schiff). All that matters is the knowledge that a person has and that it is correct, the person delivering the information doesn’t matter. Especially as the names of the people can be anonymous on Wikipedia the person behind the information could be anybody.