Monday, December 19, 2005
Wikipedia in the News
Hello good morning and welcome to Cybersurf, your weekly window on the web – I am Steven Lang.
In the last week or so, one of my all time favourite sites – Wikipedia.org – has hit the headlines in internet publications. Wikipedia, is an online encyclopedia made up of material generated by volunteers – it is essentially an open source encyclopaedia.
The site has been in the news for two reasons reflecting both its weaknesses and its strength.
Critcs say that because Wikipedia has no proper review mechanism and because it is not compiled by professionals – its credibility must be questionable.
And the critics’ position has been bolstered by several recent events including the vandalisation of a biographical entry in the Wikipedia of the Norwegian Prime Minister. Another incident concerns Adam Curry who supposedly altered the entry on podcasting to polish up his role in the phenomena.
The point taken is that yes – it is possible to unilaterally change Wikipedia entries for mischievious or malicious purposes. Nobody can guarantee the accuracy of the Wikipedia.
On the other hand, the highly respected science magazine – Nature – recently conducted tests comparing the accuracy of Wikipedia science articles to those in the well known Encyclopaedia Britannica.
The tests concluded that Britannica contained fewer errors and the articles were better written – but that there was not a significant difference in accurancy between the two online encyclopaedias.
Nature said that in the articles assessed – and I quote - "Only eight serious errors, such as misinterpretations of important concepts, were detected in the pairs of articles reviewed, four from each encyclopedia."
The science journal appeared to have more problems with the structure of the articles in the Wikipedia than the accuracy.
To sum it up – Wikipedia is a good place to begin your research – but I would not treat it as a definitive source for information.
And with that bit of advice, we wrap up today’s slightly shorter edition of Cybersurf – thanks for listening and enjoy your festive season surfing – be it on the Internet or on the ocean waves.
