Contributing to wikis

The learning 2.0 website encourages users to learn to edit a wiki site for practice. The sandbox, or site for playing around, that they have set up was unavailable to me two years after the project originally initiated, so I instead went over to Wikipedia to try editing a page there. 

I went through the editing tutorial that is available on their website and found it to be very user friendly. They definitely want to legitimize the information that users provide, and ask people to cite sources and reference any changes made to a page. Even if the historian in me may look at some of the sources and realize that they aren't that great to begin with, as a general internet peruser and quick fact looker-upper, I do like knowing that the information has a basis somewhere, and, if traced back far enough, is probably from a legitimate source. 

However, I am now excited to go into the Salamanca wiki page and either edit the section about the Plaza Mayor or write a new page for it. There's a place where I have plenty of information and sources! I could potentially edit wikipedia in two languages, although the page in Spanish is already quite good. 

What I like about Wikipedia and other open source sites such as this is how it allows people to be passionate about particular areas and then share it with the world. Or at least other similarly interested people. I was out to dinner last night with a friend of mine who edits a open source sports magazine online, and she was mentioning how even though the content is not her cup of tea, the people who contribute as well as those who run it are extremely dedicated to their interests and really utilize the source.