TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: Wikipedia Becomes Internet Force, But Faces Crisis

Re: Wikipedia Becomes Internet Force, But Faces Crisis

John McHarry (jmcharry@comcast.net)
Sun, 18 Dec 2005 03:27:57 GMT

On Fri, 16 Dec 2005 16:30:26 +0000, Thor Lancelot Simon wrote:

> In article <telecom24.565.7@telecom-digest.org>, Dave Garland
> <dave.garland@wizinfo.com> wrote:

>> The exercise revealed numerous errors in both encyclopaedias, but
>> among 42 entries tested, the difference in accuracy was not
>> particularly great: the average science entry in Wikipedia contained
>> around four inaccuracies; Britannica, about three ...

> I'm astonished that a 25% difference is considered "not particularly
> great".

I saw a followup to that that looked at the length of the
articles. The Wikipedia articles were longer, which slightly more than
closed the gap.

Wikipedia has more vulnerabilities than a traditional edited collection
like Britannica, but it contains a rather amazing amount of
information. Of course, no secondary source should be trusted very
far.

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