How the Information Infrastructure Has Changed in the Digital Age - Evolving Global Information Infrastructure and Information Transfer - page 76

Technology in the emergent paradigm has resulted in new formats for inform-
ation; furthermore, technology and media are changing the ways we create new
information. An example is Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia. The name “Wiki-
pedia” is a combination of the words wiki, a technology for the collaborative cre-
ation of Web sites, and encyclopedia . Unlike traditional encyclopedias, for which
acknowledged experts selected by an editorial board write articles, entries in Wiki-
pedia are written collaboratively by the public. Users can identify themselves,
use a pseudonym, or contribute anonymously. Similarly, readers can edit articles.
Anyone with access to the Internet can author part of an article in Wikipedia; in this
digital age, everyone with access to appropriate technologies has a voice in the
public conversation. The result is a “self-correcting” feature of information in the
emergent paradigm. The view is that knowledge functions best in an open system,
where diverse viewpoints are valued, complexity is viewed positively, and mutual
causality is a dynamic process of change.
Because of the way it is written, the wary reader must evaluate each article in
Wikipedia carefully. The author(s) of an article may be anonymous, and their ex-
pertise may be unknown; consequently, factual errors may occur, but the self-cor-
recting feature reduces error. An advantage of Wikipedia is access (it's free) and
currency. Articles may appear in Wikipedia before they appear in more traditional
information sources.
The same kind of reader participation occurs in some online scholarly journals
and news sources. Most newspapers are published both online and in print; the
online version on a Web page may provide space for readers' comments. Although
some comments may be impertinent, the reader is able to view the reactions of
other readers, sometimes revealing unknown background information or providing
a sampling of public sentiment.
Formal Research Has Changed
The digital age has opened access to new formal research. With the availability
of Internet access in the 1990s, access to information became available quickly
and often at no cost, giving birth to the open access movement. Open access (OA)
is the provision of unrestricted access via the Internet to scholarly research. Open
access is frequently applied to scholarly research articles, but it is increasingly
provided to dissertations, theses, and monographs.
Authors may publish in a journal and archive a copy of the research report in
their university's repository for free use by the public. Another option is to publish
in an open access journal, which provides free access on the publisher's Web site.