Question re Hatyn'

[Andrey Shcherbenok]

Yes, science and technology sections in Wikipedia (which Nature your quote
refers to) are usually quite good -- there are a lot more experts around to
check for accuracy and there are no particular stakes in misinforming the
public about the structure of DNA or the engines used in 1949 Fords, for
example. History is a very different matter...

-----Original Message-----
From: Slavic & East European Languages and Literature list
[mailto:SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU] On Behalf Of Alina Israeli
Sent: Monday, October 30, 2006 8:22 PM
To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Question re Hatyn'

>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

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