IMS_Blog

In a sort of continuation to a theme via Gadgetopia comes New York Times news that the Wikipedia logo contains some errors. I think that as a representation of Wikipedia this makes the logo even more wonderful. It says that even though things may be pretty damn good (like that logo is) it is produced by people exactly like you and so may contain the occasional error. This all goes back to considering the source of information. I’ve seen reports that some educational institutions have essentially completely banned the use of Wikipedia. I think that’s overkill. It probably shouldn’t be used as a citation (unless it really is the only one you can find) but that doesn’t reduce it’s usefulness (and I think in some circumstances it probably is a valid citation—as much as any random reference book anyway). As a starting point it is often hard to beat. Instead of saying don’t use it, it would be much more productive to teach to critically evaluate its contents (even correcting it where possible, as that’s the nature of the beast) and to follow through to the often cited sources.