Wikipedia: Liberating Knowledge or Distorting It
Wikipedia is often at the heart of the debate on if history online is liberates history to a wider audience, or distorts it.
The problem is not so much political bias or even inaccurate (though the site is subject to that), but rather many Wikipedia historical articles rely more on "trivia card fact" history as opposed to more analytical history. Part of problem is its early rocky history between academics and the less academic hyper editors.
Additionally, Wikipedia suffers from still continuing to be dominated by white men. For example, there is currently only one page on the wiki where the majority of the content has been edited or added by women.
It is also hard to add content on people who were not white men (for example female scientists). Over the last few years however more historical institutions and historians are getting involved with editing Wikipedia. October 14th or Ada Lovelace Day (i.e. the birthdate of Ada Lovelace, Charles Baddage collaborator on the Analytical Engine and the world's first computer programmer) has informally become an organized today for historical or science communities to host "hackathons" or Wikipedia editing events where they create or develop Wikipedia pages on female scientists. More events like Ada Lovelove Day will better enable Wikipedia to become more than a host of trivia card history on people and events that have already been focused on in traditional history.
Sources: http://findingada.com/about/
http://moebio.com/research/wikipediagender/#tv_programs&films&books&emotions&cities&sports&from_list
http://chnm.gmu.edu/essays-on-history-new-media/essays/?essayid=42