[Web4lib] Wikipedia Founder Discourages Academic Use ofHisCreation

[Hankinson, Andrew]

"Imagine if the Britannica had a disclaimer that said "This is a
tertiary source and we often may get things wrong."

Would that be a bad thing?

Not necessarily wrong, but even Britannica is written from a
perspective.  'Right' and 'Wrong,' in many cases, are a matter of
perspective. The sooner we teach the public about information evaluation
rather than explicitly trusting canonical sources, the sooner we get
past the "giving a person a fish" and into the "teaching a person to
fish."  

Wikipedia just presses us into doing this sooner.  I wouldn't cite
Wikipedia in a research paper (without proper digging into its editorial
background), but I would use it as a launching point for more resources
on the subject.

-Andrew


On 6/13/06, K.G. Schneider <kgs at bluehighways.com> wrote:
>
>
> Oh, I see; it's because it's an encyclopedia; blame the format!
>
> > Oh, and good point, Karen. What if your false knowledge from 
> > wikipedia caused you to lose at Trivial Pursuit!
> >
> > Joshua Ellsworth
>
> Your comment is funny, but it did hit a chord. Aren't we all entitled 
> to the best information possible, whether we are making a life 
> decision, playing a board game, planning a family move, cooking 
> dinner, or deciding whether it's right for our country to go to war?
>
> Karen G. Schneider
> kgs at bluehighways.com
>
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>
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