Newsweek on Wikipedia
October 24th, 2004Jessica links to a Newsweek article on wikipedia. A few interesting quotes from the article:
“It’s one part reference tool, one part fascinating social experiment. Visitors can create their own entries or change existing ones, contributing their bookish wisdom and, yes, sometimes mistakes or outright misinformation as well.”
“Some professional researchers even use it, though cautiously. “It’s a good resource for the casual user,” says Stephen Bolhafner, a researcher at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “I use it as a second or third source to confirm something.”
“A collaborative encyclopedia sounds like a crazy idea, but it naturally controls itself,” says Angela Beesley, a volunteer from Essex, England, and a self-confessed Wikipedia addict who monitors the accuracy of more than 1,000 entries.”
That last quote is interesting. Surowiecki wrote about that concept in Wisdom of Crowds. I wonder what he thinks of Wikipedia. I’m sure that he would find them worthwhile, if the right parameters were in place.