Week 7: Thing 16: Wikis

I realized that the Library's internal Web site functions like a wiki - or is in fact a wiki. I edited it the other day. How weird. I think it's really amazing how wikis work. I just am hesitant about wholehearted adoption given the number of people out there who love to disrupt community activities. There's always one person who would like to wreak havoc on a wiki, thereby ruining the experience for everyone else. And some people do it unwittingly. I just read in the paper today how Johns Hopkins University is setting the record straight on the whole toxins in plastic that are released when heating food in microwave. I hate to admit that I was caught up in the hysteria and started using glass to microwave my kids' food. Hopkins name was attributed to the findings, so I didn't think I actually needed to check in with them to verify. And lo and behold, today it comes out that Hopkins never endorsed that finding. Some schmo put it on the web somewhere and hysterical parents everywhere started to send around the e-mail lending the "urban myth" credibility so that people believed it, rather than verifying that it was in fact not authored nor substantiated by Hopkins. Gotta love it. All I have to say, is that there are sick people out there who prey on the well intentioned out there. And wikis just give them another playground. That's my two cents.