Wikipedia: Stub-article Improvement

As many of you know Wikipedia is an online encyclopaedia full of information on every imaginable topic. During this week's ALES204 lab the class had a very interesting assignment, which was to edit and improve a post on Wikipedia. Until recently I was unaware how easy it is to create an account and begin editing any section that has been flagged for improvement on Wikipedia. Although it is great Wikipedia is available worldwide via the internet and many people including myself use it frequently a concern arises on how reliable is the information being posted? When anyone worldwide can add information we would hope the information is true and the poster is trying to share valuable knowledge. Wikipedia has its own page where one can read up on the reliability of Wikipedia but to the extent of the usage of the information posted is up to the reader themselves.

The stub-article I choose to improve was on sow Gestation Crates specifically the newer design inventions of Farrowing crates. Gestation crates are where a sow is kept during her pregnancy and there are many concerns and animal welfare activists that have concerns with the small area and lack of movement the sow is contained in for long periods of time. A guest speaker from a swine production farm I had the pleasure of listening to mentioned his use free moving gestation stalls. Each sow has her own stall but they are free to leave and move whenever they please. Even with this freedom it was found the sows still tend to spend around 95% of the day in the stall.   Farrowing crates are where the sows are moved to right before giving birth and decrease and prevent the crushing of the young piglets when the sow goes to lay down. From pervious animal science classes I have taken the farrowing stalls are necessary to increase the survival rate of the young piglets. The separate stalls also allow for adjustment of feed with the changes in requirements of the sow from pregnancy to lactation to weaning. Two newer inventions of the farrowing crate are VIP design by Ikadan and the 360° Freedom designed by Midland Pig Producers. Both new designs allow for a greater space for the sow increasing movement and also allowing for the sow to demonstrate motherly instincts to her piglets. Another student edited a Wikipedia stub on EDNOS (Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified), which can also be found on her blogspot.

Screen shot from the entry I improved on Wikipedia from Christie Badachs own photo folder. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gestation_crate

When first given the Wikipedia assignment I was concerned with how difficult it would be to find a topic that interested me and how easy it be to improve the article. After a minimal amount of searching I was able to find a stub that was interesting to me and one I felt I could improve. Even with concern of the reliability issue with my searching I notice many posts others have made have done their research and are projecting the knowledge they have obtained to the best of their ability. It was also found surveillance does take place and if there is information that may be wrongfully posted it can be report and removed.

In conclusion if anyone is interested in sharing their knowledge with the world and would like to take a shot at editing a stub-article on Wikipedia you can visit the link of a list of stubs available for improvement.