Can you trust a Wiki?
In his blog Nathan Zeldes writes…
…whether one can trust the content of Wikipedia, or any Wiki for that matter. The answer, to my mind, is a qualified yes – you can trust it all right, after doing the “checking thing” to determine how trustworthy any specific article is. I’ve done a good deal of research using Wikipedia, and I always cross-correlate it with other sources (making sure they didn’t copy from the same place as the Wikipedia author!) and subject its content to my own analysis. I never take content at face value… but by now I can derive a good idea of its worth in fairly short order.
The important thing, though, is to remember that the same thing applies to Real Life. My volumes of the Britannica appear very authoritative, but in addition to the many articles that are dated – nobody can change their hard copy when the world evolves – there are no doubt those that are simply in error. They may have been authored by experts, but experts can and do err too, often with dire results. Just read the newspaper! Con artists, too, existed long before the Internet. The principle of Caveat Emptor always applies, whether one is buying used cars or online knowledge; and arguably, the online world provides much better tools for validation of your seller – if you know how to go about it. Like in the real world, many poor souls lack this knowledge and pay the price.
The interesting question is not which encyclopedia is perfect – none is – but rather which one is more useful at the end of the day, Wikipedia or the Britannica? Personally I believe that for a naïve reader the Britannica would be safer; but for a web-savvy reader, one equipped to examine the information critically, Wikipedia can be far more beneficial, given its considerably greater scope and its superb facilities for self-correction. Doing research in this medium can be outright exhilarating… and - unlike the Britannica - if you find anything dated or erroneous, you can correct it then and there for the benefit of all humanity!
Nathan’s original and full article is here: http://blogs.intel.com/it/2006/12/wiki_s_and_online_knowledge_ca.html