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The Other Tech Giant

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Lying drunk in a field outside the Austrian city of Innsbruck in 1971, inspiration struck
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Douglas Adams, a science-fiction writer. He looked at his copy of The Hitchhiker's Guide to
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Europe, and then up at the stars, and came up with the idea for a Hitchhiker's Guide to the
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Galaxy. It would be a (fictional) mixture of travel book and encyclopedia, but with an
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absurd-seeming twist: instead of being written by experts, anyone could contribute.
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Adams played his idea for laughs. But today it looks as prescient as it was funny. On
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January 15th Wikipedia - "the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit" - will celebrate its 20th
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anniversary. It will do so as the biggest and most-read reference work ever. Wikipedia
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hosts more than 55 m articles in hundreds of languages, each written by volunteers. Its 6.2
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m English-language articles alone would fill some 2,800 volumes in print. [...]
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Yet Wikipedia is an oddity. It defies the Silicon Valley recipe for success. The site has no
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shareholders, has generated no billionaires and sells no advertising. [...] Wikipedia grew
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organically, as more and more ordinary people decided to contribute. The site has its roots in
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the techno-optimism that characterised the internet at the end of the 20th century. It held that
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ordinary people could use their computers as tools for liberation, education and
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enlightenment.
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Like most Utopian thinking, the idea of an amateur encyclopedia was, for many
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years, treated as a bit of a joke. [...] Even now, after numerous academic studies
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high-lighting its reliability, Wikipedia still lacks the gravitas and authority of older
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encyclopedias like Britannica, which are written by paid academic experts rather than
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amateurs. Schools, universities and The Economist's fact-checkers frown on relying on it
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Wikipedia may not have vanquished its doubters in theory. But ti has triumphed in s2
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practice. With over 20 bn page views a month, it has become the standard reference work
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for anyone with an internet connection. As social-media sites are lambasted for
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censorship, "fake news", disinformation and conspiracy theories, its reputation is higher than
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ever. Toby Negrin, chief product officer at the Wikimedia Foundation, the San
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Francisco-based charity that provides the site's infrastructure, describes the online
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encyclopedia as a "guardian of truth". [...]
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Its biggest power is its subtlest. Since it is the first resort of students, professors, journalists
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and any number of curious people, its contributors do much to make the intellectual weather.
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The WHO's decision to work with Wikipedia reflects research suggesting that the site is the
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most-read source of medical information in the world - for doctors as well as patients.
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Its reach is clearest when things go wrong. In 2008 one user inserted a joke claiming that the
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South American coati, a small mammal, is sometimes known as the "Brazilian aardvark". By
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the time the jape was revealed, in 2014, it had found its way on to various websites and into
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news articles and a book published by a university press. [...]
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Yet despite a string of notable embarrassments - and its own disclaimer that "Wikipedia is
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not a reliable source" - it is, on the whole, fairly accurate. An investigation by Nature in 2005
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compared the site with Britannica, and found little difference in the number of errors that
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experts could find in a typical article. Other studies, conducted
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since, have mostly endorsed that conclusion. Explaining exactly why Wikipedia's articles
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are so good is trickier. A common joke holds that it is just as well that Wikipedia works in
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practice, because it does not work in theory.
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Deliberate decisions are one explanation. Wikipedia compares well with other reference
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works when it comes to honest mistakes, but it is uniquely vulnerable to vandalism and
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pranks. In an effort to combat them, says Mr Negrin, the site has developed algorithms that
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monitor articles for mischief. For America's recent presidential election, editing articles was
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restricted to accounts more than 30 days old, and with at least 500 edits to their name.
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Other reasons are structural. The site's open nature and its popularity help ensure that errors
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in well-read articles are usually spotted and fixed quickly. [...] Mr Greenstein notes that,
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unlike with a printed encyclopedia, "another paragraph doesn't cost anything". That means
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that ideological rows can often be defused simply by adding paragraphs outlining different
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views. The site's intimidating list of rules means that new editors face a steep learning curve.
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But it also helps to filter out dilettantes, ideologues and bores with an axe to grind
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Wikipedia's not-for-profit structure, points out Mr Kahle, means it can focus on the interests
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of readers and editors without having to consider the (possibly conflicting) demands of
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advertisers. The site is unusual since it is run by humans, not algorithms.
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Though social-media sites rely on idiot-savant computer programs to maximise
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"engagement" (i.e., to sell more advertising), Wikipedia's humans try to uphold woolly ideals
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such as accuracy, impartiality and arguing in good faith.
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Much of its success, in other words, is because of the culture its users have created.
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[...]
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Keeping Wikipedia's culture healthy means moving with the times. [...] Typing long articles
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on a smartphone is inescapably awkward, so attention has focused on helping users to
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make "micro-edits", such as fixing spelling mistakes or correcting dates. The hope is that this
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will also act as a gateway drug for young editors and for those in poorer countries for whom
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smartphones are the standard or only way of getting online.
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Attracting a steady supply of new editors is vital for Wikipedia's long-term survival. So is
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attracting new kinds of contributors. Ms Maher estimates around 80% of Wikipedia's editors
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are male, and skewed towards North America and Europe. The encyclopedia itself is popular
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in America, Europe, Russia and Japan, but not much read in India and sub-Saharan Africa.
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Changing that, she says, is vital to the health of a project whose idealism remains
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undimmed. "Our vision is a world where every single human being can share in all
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knowledge," she says. This time, such Utopianism is harder to dismiss. After all, it is backed
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up by 20 years of success.
From: Matt Chase, "The Other Tech Giant- Wikipedia Is 20, andIts Reputation Has Never Been Higher",
in: https://www.economist.com/international/2021/01/09/wikipedia-is-20-and-its-reputation-has-never-been-higher (abridged, last visited: November 19, 2021)

Text comprehension and analysis

Complete the following tasks using your own words as far as is appropriate Quote correctly.
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Describe Wikipedia's early years, its significance today and its future plans.
(15 %)
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Explain the reasons for Wikipedia's success in today's media landscape, taking into account how the writer's use of language (four examples) reveals his attitude.
(20 %)

Composition

Choose one of the following topics and write a coherent text laying out your ideas.
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Digital devices - tools for liberation, education and enlightenment. Discuss.
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"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -
I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference."
Comment on these lines from the poem "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost (1874-1963, American poet)
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Describe briefly, analyse and comment on the cartoon.
cartoon bayern abi 2022
https://planeperspective.com/target-audience-marketing/
(20 %)

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