Case 01 — Wikipedia and Participatory Knowledge Literacy
Overview
| Item | Content |
|---|---|
| Period | Launched 2001; spread through schools and libraries in the mid-2000s |
| Technology | Wikipedia (wiki, browser-based editing, edit history) |
| Literacy | Verifying information, collaborative editing, judging sources, the openness of knowledge |
Transition Point (Laptop → Web Participation)
The encyclopedia you only read on a PC or laptop became a field of knowledge anyone can write and correct. The purpose of reading and writing shifted from “finding answers in a book” to “building and verifying answers together.”
Literacy Improvement Mechanisms
- Reading edit history: Who changed this article, when, and why?
- Talk pages: Critical reading of the discussion behind the knowledge
- Sources and neutrality: Practicing judgment by reading “needs more citation” tags
- Collaborative writing: Handing your sentences to others and refining them together
Field Operation Tips
- 50 minutes: become an edit-history detective on one article → a one-line opinion on “can I trust this sentence?”
- Offline substitute: a paper wiki, where several people take turns rewriting a loose-leaf document
- Output: one draft article on our village or an experience site (including source citations)
Implications for Paju Activist Training
- A model for programs that record local knowledge together (village stories, experience sites)
- Grounding for knowledge written by activists and citizens, not only by experts
- Emphasize fact-checking and source citation habits in the first session
Notes
- The flagship case of 2000s web participation (Web 2.0)
- The same editing and verification grammar carries over into mobile (2010s)