4/9/2009 Draft Thesis Statement

Although social networking websites threathen users privacy, they are rapidly becoming useful in emergency situations.

Articles for support:
Emergency 2.0 is coming to a website near you - http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19826545.900-emergency-20-is-coming-to-a-website-near-you.html?full=true
Red Cross is using Twitter! - http://twitter.com/RedCross
Facebook 'more effective than emergency services in a disaster' - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1914750/Facebook--more-effective-than-emergency-services-in-a-disaster.html
Student 'Twitters' his way out of Egyptian jail - http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/04/25/twitter.buck/

4/9/2009 Wiki Assessment on Twitter

While looking up Twitter on Wikipedia, there was tons of information given. Looking up the history of the page, there have been several edits to the page. Unfortunately, wiki allows any sort of editing to be done by anyone, whether they are experts in the field or random people that have nothing better to do with their time. That means that all the information provided could be as false as an angered consumer writing a blog post. Which is the main reason Wiki should not be used as an only source or as an authoritative source as there is no way to determine the authenticity of the information provided.
However, if you pick through the article, it is easy to find where the information is directly rooted. Locating an article cited in the Wiki page on Twitter, there was further detailed information and lead me to other related articles, which was able to assist me in coming up with my draft thesis statement.

Although majority of college students are advised not to use Wikipedia as an authoritative source for papers, the information given on the website can serve as a good start off point for students who need additional push.