Wikipedia may scare the hardcore academic types, but it has a valid place in the new information game.
User-generated content and citizen journalism is changing the landscape of "the news." Gone are the days when the gray hairs held the keys to the information gateway. It may scare the oldschoolers, but Wikipedia is the beginning of a revolution, a revolution with an unpredictable outcome.
Citizen journalism is growing exponentially, and ignoring it won't make it go away. My mom always told me to look on the bright side, and try to find something positive in bad situations. So what if Wikipedia is putting the door-to-door encyclopedia sales out of business, citizens are taking away reporters' jobs, Web sites are taking advertising dollars from newspapers, and journalism graduates are expected to know how to do it all if they want to get a job. It may look bleak, but sometimes the worst thing today turns into the best thing tomorrow.
I can't predict the good that will come out of it; I'm not in the business of fortune telling. But I can say that I am excited to be around for the revolution. It will be a challenge for traditional information providers to compete with user-generated content, but I'm up for that challenge.
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