[Web4lib] Problems with Wikipedia

[Deborah Kaplan]

On Fri, 5 Jan 2007, Lars Aronsson wrote:
> Michael McCulley wrote:
> 
> > There are a tremendous number of Wikipedia backers and supporters, all hail
> > to them; but, for the majority of librarians, it should be approached with a
> > professionalism that requires the information be considered "suspect." The
> > reason: anyone can change anything in Wikipedia at any time; it doesn't
> 
> Now you are implicitly saying that *other* sources (printed books) 
> *are* inherently reliable.  But are they?  Is this a professional 
> assumption?  Do librarians read and fact-check every book before 
> it is made available on the open shelves?  Exactly which approach 
> or attitude is the professional one, here?  Maybe the real benefit 
> of Wikipedia is that it forces us to ask this question.

Exactly.  When I was a Wikipedian, when I was most prone to do
was go around to the pages in my field and insist on cited
sources, removing all unsourced assertions. Because Wikipedia is
open, anybody who wants can push an opinion -- but Wikipedia
forbids original research, so all of those opinions need to be
backed by reputable sources (what "reputable" means is a subject
of frequent but somewhat resolved debate). What this means is
that unlike a published book, which is more likely to showcase
one author's or editor's viewpoint, a well-written Wikipedia
article will showcase all of the viewpoints which have been
written on the topic.

For an example of this, look at the pages about particularly
controversial news topics -- and then read the discussion pages
for those articles. You'll see a lot of vitriol and ignorance in
the discussion pages, but you will also see a community consensus
moving toward citation and myriad perspectives. In fact, one of
the most encouraging things I ever saw on Wikipedia was a group
of Armenians and Turks working together to improve the pages
regarding both countries (although I can't find a project now).

Not to diminish the flaws in Wikipedia, but I do agree with Mr.
Aronsson Wikipedia allows us to watch the sausage being made, as
it were, and valuably opens up our skepticism about *all*
information sources.

-Deborah
-- 
Deborah Kaplan
Digital Initiatives Librarian
Brandeis University