Wikipedia and other public knowledge sites are often run through the work of people adding and creating new articles to have a central collection of information. In the article, Wikipedia and the Politics of Openness, there is a huge debate on public information that can accessed and shared for the entire population. The article mentions writers who proposed a community where openness was integrated into its society, known as an open society. There are many problems that people may have in this society, but writers state in this article that the society would maintain itself with a constant change of materials with their environment, which can lead to a change of components in the system itself.
In today's society, this can apply to us with the introduction of the internet. Since there is so much information out there and that there is no centralized place to collect it, public information sites were created. Wikipedia, Youtube, and other platforms that holds information that can be crucial to people. It is a difficult topic to discuss, since it comes down to the opinion of people about sharing information publicly. One reason why people want information to be public is that information out there is already public. Libraries are an example of a collection of information that is public. Of course, it is also books usually purchased or donated to them, but it is still public. Access to this information is also free and public, so it should be the same online. Of course, using the information and claiming it is a different topic, but access and just reading the information should be public and a right for the people. A con that may even out this free information is that it is usually fact checked by people online, usually by volunteer. This means that if people want to have free information posted, it must be maintained by the people who access it. This is a previous concept from the article, where the people must have a constant change of materials. Materials in this case being the time and effort of the people to make sure that the information is being kept up to date and correct, backed by sources and citations. Personally, I think information being public online is a necessary. After all, the internet was created solely for the purpose of linking people across the world and country, sharing ideas and communications. These reasons help me make the strong opinion of having information public and free on the internet.