Know it All -Wikipedia

1. Cindy Schiff's main points in the article is to explain how Wikipedia is run-- how entries are made/updated and some Wikipedia-vocabulary. She says Wikipedia has a huge number of entries, but that there are some that are unreliable and vandalized. The topics are unevenly distributed--there are much longer entries on popular topics than on some important historical topics.

2.

"Others involve ideological disagreements and escalate into intense edit wars. A number of the disputes on the English-language Wikipedia relate to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to religious issues. Almost as acrimonious are the battles waged over the entries on Macedonia, Danzig, the Armenian genocide, and Henry Ford. Ethnic feuds die hard: Was Copernicus Polish, German, or Prussian?...Is apple pie all-American? (The answer, at least for now, is no: “Apple trees did not even grow in America until the Europeans brought them over,” one user railed. He was seconded by another, who added, “Apple pie is very popular in the Netherlands too. Americans did not invent or introduce it to the Netherlands. You already plagiarized Santa Claus from our Saint Nicholas. Stop it!”)"

This passage is particularly effective because it provides a good example of the an ideological disagreement (as opposed to disagreements in facts). It clarifies what an ideological disagreement is in case it was not clear. Supporting detail also makes a passage more interesting and therefore a more memorable part of an article.

3. Wikipedia is much more accessible than Encyclopedia Britannica for most people--anyone with Internet can use Wikipedia, but only who own/have access to the Encyclopedia Britannica are able to use it. Wikipedia has a faster way of looking up information about topics than does Encyclopedia Britannica. When using Wikipedia one types the topic and then the computer retrieves it, but with Encyclopedia Britannica one has to find the correct volume and then look up the topic taking much longer than it would to do so on Wikipedia. Wikipedia also has a list of sources, that can be easily accessed, about each topic, whereas Encyclopedia Britannica does not.