I've found Wikipedia generally reliable in areas I know something about.
I've contributed to a couple of articles in small ways. I have run across
entries that are badly written, fragmentary & unsatisfactory, but I use it
as a quick reference. Here's what I put on my writing assignments for my
students:
**Wikipedia is an online resource that anyone can edit. Its entries are not
authoritative and vary widely in accuracy and quality. Still, it can be a
useful resource, particularly on subjects of popular culture such as those
we deal with in this class. The best rule is, don't accept anything in a WP
article without checking it against other sources and against common sense.
I like the general philosophy. There are also efforts beginning that will
use wiki technology (the word means quick in Hawaiian) with more restricted
groups of contributors. Check out
Scholarpedia<http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Main_Page>
.
--
Joseph Duemer
Professor of Humanities
Clarkson University
[sharpsand.net]
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