Question re Hatyn'

[Alina Israeli]

>I believe the story of a non-existent professor at York University is one
>more occasion to remind ourselves that World Wide Web is increasingly NOT a
>reliable source of information. Unfortunately, it is also the case with
>Wikipedia, whose anonymity provides a particularly welcoming environment for
>historically irresponsible and ideologically biased writings (cf., for
>example, its treatment of the Great Patriotic War in the entry of the same
>name). If we want to try to preserve some scholarly standards in Academia, I
>suggest that we should never ourselves refer to (or encourage our students
>to use) any anonymous source of information in the Internet, be that
>Wikipedia or Live Journal.

There is a difference between Wikipedia (shared knowledge) and Live 
Journal, a blog system. Wikipedia has been studied. Here's the 
comparison between Wikepedia and Britannica (which I personally love, 
in book form):



"The exercise revealed numerous errors in both encyclopedias, 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."

A paper is available at:
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v438/n7070/full/438900a.html

-- 
__________
Alina Israeli
LFS, American University
4400 Mass. Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20016

phone:	(202) 885-2387
fax:	(202) 885-1076

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------