CCT300+Lab+10

= Lab 10 = = Wikipedia vs. About.com =

When we type in a word to search, the most often answer we get are the information sources from Wikipedia and About.com. To test the functionality of the both sites, I type in “disruptive technology”. In the Wikipedia, a sites shows up with detailed definition as well as many extended knowledge. About.com shows many related popular question people ask online. Although they are both providing information about the concept, the aspect of the contents are totally different. Wikipedia relies on the professional definition, sources, history and also studies about it. However, About.com pays more attention to the practical aspect. What is the most popular question people care about? People don’t care about the professional definition and history but they do care about the relation to other fields and the usage of the knowledge. The two seems like the formal and informal relations in the management area. In addition, Wikipedia provides more information for the related sites. Although people keep on emphasizing that Wikipedia is not the reliable reference, they always take it as the start point. People could track the source of the related sites to find reliable information. About.com rarely has nothing about related link.

Since Wikipedia and About.com are both open source, it is hard to track the author of each piece of information. It is probably another reason that they can't be taken as seriously as a journal. Wikipedia are more reliable than About.com in terms of the explanation of the sources and the layout of the page. Even the design of the webpage matters to the reliability.