Media Experiment 3-Wiki-versation

For this media Experiment I chose to do my entry on the recent debate over the Arizona Senate Bill. I started this assignment very late so I did not have much of a chance to get too much of a dialogue exchange with other users. However, I attached my discussion on profiling from the site.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Support_Our_Law_Enforcement_and_Safe_Neighborhoods_Act#Profiling

Luckily, I did have two responses after my discussion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Support_Our_Law_Enforcement_and_Safe_Neighborhoods_Act#Profiling

While I was extremely hard pressed for time with this experiment it was extremely informative. Before I started this research I did not have a good idea of that the bill actually did and just thought it would give police officers more leeway to arest people based on suspicion of being illegal. I was wrong because I only had a general idea of what the bill truly did. I was shown by a wiki user called JeffConrad that the bill actually overrides the fact that a state cannot enforce civil provisions of federal law which immigration falls under. Immigration enforcement is an example of civil law. Thus, the bill intertwines federal and state law which is very interesting. Furthermore, the bill allows an officer to detain a person based on immigration status but does not require the detained person to respond back. I did not realize any of these these things before this assignment.

While I was unable to complete this assignment to its full extent I feel that I did understand the underlying goal behind it. When I began my discussion on wikipedia I had never even thought about commenting or giving my input on a wikipedia article. After I did this I realized I could contribute my opinions and ideas to a vast network of information. In wikipedia thousands of facts, ideologies, and opinions are tweeked and criticized everyday. I did not appreciate wikipedia before this because I did not think about the idea of user generated information. Now, I see why everyone is allowed to edit entries because it allows for a more holistic and all encompassing approach to learning and information. Everyone is involved and this is what I believe user generated knowledge and info stand for. People obviously abuse this privilege but wikipedia is special because it allows users to give their perspective and knowledge on a subject. Users can actively debate and criticize each other's opinions in a respective and civil manner.

At it's core wikipedia is a perfect example of democracy. It is an arena where users can exchange ideas and information and actively voice their views.It is much like a modern day electronic Agora where knowledge and ideas can be exchanged. The Agora was the market place or meeting place in ancient Greece where ideas and philosophies were exchanged. Now that a significant majority our interaction takes place on the internet I feel it is safe to compare wikipedia to a modern day Agora. Two key principles of deomcracy are equality and freedom. Wikipedia definitely exhibits these two principles because all user's opinions are equal and they have the freedom to say what they feel. At wikipedia, knowledge and information are definitely user generated because they control the flow of information which is published on the site and have the ability to edit what they want. The user has ultimate freedom in controlling how information is portrayed.
Wikipedia is an excellent example of a democratizing website where users are the ultimate source of knowledge and info.