Wales, 39, started like many other encyclopedists start by commisioning articles from experts and subjecting them to peer review. After 18 months, he had a pititful 12 entries; at that rate, it would take a few milleniums to equal Encyclopaedia Britannica. So Wales decided to create a free-form companion site based on a little-known software program called a wiki (in Hawaiian means quick) with the button "edit this page". It was so effective that a million articles came in and almost 10 times as many as Britannica.
Although, throughout the years Wikipedia has proven to be a reliable source but there are still doubts on its credibility. There was an incident that reported that 24 years old Ryan Jordan contributed or modify over 20,000 articles in Wikipedia, he claimed to be a professor of religion and comes from a reputable university.
Wales stated that, “Reaching neutrality is occasionally made harder by extreme-viewpoint contributors,” it says, and it warns that “Wikipedia makes no guarantee of validity.”
(Source: WhatJapanThinks.com )However, internet and polls from japan.internet.com reviews a research being conducted showing the results of Japanese trusting Wikipedia sites as a credible source. They surveyed 1,060 people, 55.6% female, over a few days at the start of April. The age demographics were 24.6% in their twenties, 43.7% in their thirties, 23.7% in their forties, and 8.0% in their fifties (WhatJapanThinks.com).
References:
Anderson, C 2006, 'Jimmy Wales: The (Proud) Amateur Who Created Wikipedia', TIME: The Lives and Ideas of the World's Most Influential People in The World, vol.167, no.18, pp.44.
Ken, YN 2006, Wikipedia Very Highly Trusted in Japan, viewed on 11 November 2008,
<http://whatjapanthinks.com/2006/04/11/wikipedia-very-highly-trusted-in-japan/>
Daniels, L & Johnson A 2007, The Word on Wikipedia: Trust But Verify, viewed on 11 November 2008, <http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17740041/>
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