Wikipedia’s Hive-Mind of Knowledge
September 3rd, 2010 | Published in My Life, Society, Technology
A friend today posted on Facebook that the Admiral Twin Drive-In Theater had burned down before she ever got around to going. She was unhappy that she would probably now not get to see a drive-in movie. I decided to go on Wikipedia.” I searched for “drive in theater” and was instantly brought to the page for Drive-in theater. Skimming through the article, I found nothing about current theaters, but the “See Also” section of the article contained a link to List of active drive-in theaters.
This list contained theaters for Australia, Brasil, Canada, United States (broken down by state), and India. Listed under Oklahoma were Admiral Twin Drive In Theatre in Tulsa (uh-oh, this is out of date), Beacon Drive-In in Guthrie, Chief Drive-In in Chickasha, Corral Drive-In in Guymon, Tower Drive-In in Poteau, and Winchester Drive-In in Oklahoma City. Now, I was afraid this list was outdated since they still listed the Admiral Twin, but then I read the small description under Admiral Twin which stated “Note: The Admiral Twin burned down on 9/3/10, no word on if it will be rebuilt.” So short a time after it happened and Wikipedia has already been updated. Almost any other website listing something as random as current Drive-In Theaters would have been out of date much longer.
Is Wikipedia always accurate and update-to-date? No. But I have found over the years that it has given me far more right correct answers than incorrect answers. When everyone can edit everything (basically) on the site, it is bound to have inaccuracies at times. This same editing power, though, is what has allowed it to become one of the most vast and up-to-date repositories of knowledge I’ve ever found.