I don’t worry that much about Wikipedia’s accuracy. I don’t think it’s some kind of glorious hivemind that’s going to magically summarise all human knowledge – hopefully, if that happens, there will be fewer pages about The Simpsons – but, on the other hand, I don’t think the fact that undergraduates cite Wikipedia pages as references is evidence that civilisation is crashing down. My line of defense against this kind of pessimism is that the library has mistakes too: one of the things you should learn at university is that books, real books by grown-ups with long careers and professorships, contain errors, and not just errors of opinion but errors of fact. You can’t be taught this: you have to learn it the hard way, by yourself, when you’re up to your neck in a research project.
But then I find something like the entry on Housman’s “Is My Team Ploughing” that makes me reflect. And wince.
(For reference: A Shropshire Lad XXVII)
2 responses so far ↓
Laura // July 3, 2007 at 7:31 pm |
I should send you some of the things students have expected me to take seriously, over the years. That’s nothing.
It almost looks like a trap for the deserving unwary.
mrlynch // July 3, 2007 at 7:44 pm |
Do the students end up learning to distrust it, or at least be wary? (Or even just read the “Talk” page to check for signs of obvious mania?)
Wikipedia would be fairer, as a trap, if its subtitle were changed from “The online encyclopedia anyone can edit” to “the online encyclopedia any idiot can edit”.