The National WWII Museum vs Wikipedia Wensires - Essay Example

WEBSITE COMPARISON WEBSITE COMPARISON Introduction The internet comprises countless number of websites that provide information on wide variety of topics. Today students, academic practitioners, business executives, researchers, and other professionals increasingly depend on websites to meet their data/information needs. However, it is to be noted that all websites may not necessarily be reliable and valid, and therefore the authenticity of the data/information provided by such websites is often under question. Hence, it is necessary for users to effectively distinguish between credible and non-credible websites to ensure that the data/information accessed have required level of authenticity. This paper will analyze and compare two websites, a very useful website and a less useful one, that provide information on the chosen topic World War II. Web Comparison The useful academic website chosen for this assignment is www.nationalww2museum.org and the less useful website is www.wikipedia.org. Both these websites provide comprehensive information about the World War II (or WWII), and the purpose of these websites is to keep the audience informed of every detail of this global war that lasted from 1939-1945. When the National WWII Museum site tries to give its audience a historical overview of the WWII, the Wikipedia evaluates the aftermath and short-term as well as long-term impacts of this global war. While analyzing the website of National WWII Museum, it seems that the website has a clear agenda by which it aims to defend US position or involvement in the WWII. In contrast, the Wikipedia does not have an axe to grind as the information provided in this website purely intends to meet the academic needs of its audience. As mentioned already, the target audience of both these websites includes students, teachers, academic practitioners, historians, journalists, researchers, and other professionals. Both websites do not cater to a specific group but they try to meet the needs of the whole education sector. The National WWII Museum can be a better source for those who are interested to know the historical aspects of the Second World War. According to the whois data, Wikipedia.org has been active since 2001-01-13 and the NationalWW2Museum.org since 2004-01-211. Evidently, the National WWII Museum is an academic website that provides credible and authentic information about the WWII. The Whois Record for NationalWW2Museum.org indicates that the website’s IP location is at Texas, Austin and its registered email is jonah.langenbeck@nationalww2museum.org. The Wikipedia is also a non-profit organization aimed at providing the global population with enriched knowledge on wide varieties of subjects/topics. According to the Whois Record for Wikipedia.org, this website’s registered e-mail ID is dns-admin@wikimedia.org and its IP location is at California, San Francisco. Neither National WWII Museum nor Wikipedia displays advertisements on its first page or side bars because they do not operate commercially. It is observed that the Wikipedia uses a variety of supporting references such as books, journal articles, news articles, websites, and other sources to add to the reliability and authenticity of the information provided. However, all the supporting sources are not credible. In contrast, the National WWII Museum does not employ supporting sources to defend the credibility of the information. Despite this, the website is still assumed to be a credible source of WWII information because it is a non-profit public venture. When the WWII information and articles are posted in National WWII Museum by its admin panel, Wikipedia article on the WWII is written jointly by several people across the globe. The Wikipedia article can be further edited by any person and any sort of additional information may be added2. However, such information may be removed by the Wikipedia staff if they lack accuracy and credibility. The authors do not state their credentials and contact information in both these websites, and therefore the readers cannot know the qualification and professional experience of the article writers. While analyzing the format of these websites, it seems that the National WWII Museum has the potential to instill confidence in its veracity. The overall design and formatting structure give the website a professional look and the style of presentation is good enough to attract the professional audience. In contrast, the Wikipedia website appears to be a simple static webpage lacking a professional design and formatting style. While analyzing the style of information presentation in Wikipedia, it is obvious that this website lacks potential to instill confidence in its veracity. When looking at the home page of the National WWII Museum website, visitors would be convinced that it really represents the website of a reputed organization. To be more specific, this website’s home page provides the users with a detailed overview of information it offers. From its home page, the clickable icons, thumbnails, and links would direct its users to the pages they want to access3. When it comes to the case of Wikipedia, its home page offers only the basic information about the website and the different services it delivers. A user can access the page(s) providing information regarding a particular topic only through inserting proper key words in the search box. Since the website provides millions of articles on a wide variety of topics, it cannot display the summary of contents in the home page. Both these websites are updated regularly to provide users with most accurate and authentic information about the topic. On a comparison, it seems that Wikipedia is updated more frequently than the National WWII Museum website whereas new information is not added in the museum website very often. The academic website does not link to other sources as the admin panel believes that linking to external sources is not necessary to increase the credibility of the information provided. On the other hand, every specific piece of information provided in Wikipedia is linked to external sources to achieve credibility and accuracy because Wikipedia is generally considered as a non-academic website4. These external sources may be books, journal articles, news articles, professional reviews, research papers, market reports, or other websites. The academic website is affiliated to the National WWII Museum whereas Wikipedia is not affiliated to a particular group or organization. As the museum website is considered to be an authentic academic source, many other websites and online articles link to this website. Mainly history papers and articles about WWII link to the museum website to add further level of authenticity to the arguments presented. However, no other credible websites link to Wikipedia because the academic world does not recognize this online encyclopedia as an authentic source for citation. In addition, it seems that this non-academic website intends to meet the needs of a less sophisticated audience, and hence it is less studious in nature. In contrast, researchers, historians, and other professionally qualified people visit the museum website for information needs, and therefore this website looks like something more scholarly when compared to the other. Although grammar and spelling seem to be correct in both these websites, the museum website looks more professional in this regard. Although any person can write articles or add new information to the existing articles in Wikipedia, this non-profit organization has appointed staff to check the grammar, spelling, and accuracy of the contents added. However, considering the huge volume of new activities occurring in a Wikipedia article a day and the total number of Wikipedia staff (208), it would be impossible to correct grammar and spelling instantly with 100% efficiency. In the case of the museum website, absence of mistake makes it more creditable, and hence this website enjoys a high level reputation. In contrast, probability of mistakes, vague arguments, non-expert observations, biased views, and unsupported information makes Wikipedia non-credible. In many Wikipedia articles, the viewer is advised that ‘citation needed’ due to ambiguity or lack of literature support in the arguments. Hence, the reader is required to conduct further researches to ensure the authenticity of the information. Photographs and illustrations constitute a major source of information in the museum website as they can tell more effectively about the WWII. Perhaps the website visitor may see more images than written information mainly because it represents the website of major national museum. In contrast, the Wikipedia uses only a very limited number of photographs and illustrations to present information. For instance, the Wikipedia page containing the ‘World War II’ article has only one image to depict the whole history. However, it is important to note that Wikipedia adopts a user-friendly mechanism to integrate external sources and to cite them in an effective manner. Conclusion From the above discussion, it is clear that the National WWII Museum is a very useful website and a reputed academic source whereas Wikipedia is not recognized as an authentic one. The museum website has a professional design and formatting structure while Wikipedia looks like an ordinary static webpage. Although Wikipedia links to a variety of other sources to increase the reliability and accuracy of the information provided, no other credible websites link to Wikipedia. In contrast, although the museum website does not link to other sources, many other websites link to this website to achieve higher degree of credibility. One of the major differences between these two websites is that the museum website uses several photographs and illustrations to present information on WWII whereas Wikipedia employs only one image to do the same. When the absence of mistakes makes the museum website authentic, likeliness of different types of mistakes contributes to the poor quality of Wikipedia. Bibliography The National WW II Museum website. http://www.nationalww2museum.org/learn/education/for-students/ww2-history/ Ong, Danny. The International Students Handbook: Living and Studying in Australia. US: UNSW Press, 2009. Wikipedia. The World War II. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II Whois Domain data for The National WW II Museum website. http://whois.domaintools.com/nationalww2museum.org Whois Domain data for Wikipedia. The World War II. Read More