New Yorker article on Wikipedia

[owlmoose]

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/060731fa_fact

Long but interesting. Key quotes:

The president of Encyclopedia Britannica on Wikipedia: "Wikipedia is to Britannica as ‘American Idol’ is to the Juilliard School."

The founder of Wikipedia on Britannica: "Wikipedia is to Britannica as rock and roll is to easy listening. It may not be as smooth, but it scares the parents and is a lot smarter in the end."

Comments

[giandujabird.livejournal.com]

Hunh. Wasn't there an article which mentioned something about WP and EB having similar levels of errors? (Perhaps you had mentioned it in an eariler blog post, but LJ doesn't lend itself to useful searching.)

ah yes, the Nature article

[giandujabird.livejournal.com]

From Nature, Internet encyclopaedias go head to head (http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v438/n7070/full/438900a.html)

And a couple more on the topic:
http://www.infotoday.com/Searcher/mar06/berinstein.shtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica

[owlmoose.livejournal.com]

I have seen the Nature article but I don't remember whether I linked to it. There was an amusing and interesting defense on the Britannica site at one point; I'll have to see if I can dig it up.

[cosmorific.livejournal.com]

♥