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There was a very interesting article in the Guardian on Monday about whether you can trust the information in Wikipedia. They contacted experts in various fields and asked them to review the entries in those fields for accuracy and completeness.

Can You Trust Wikipedia?

I'm unsure how I feel about Wikipedia and the idea that anyone can add or edit information. On the one hand, it has the potential to be entirely current and constantly updating itself, which is excellent. But there's no controls, no guarantee that the information is accurate, or has even been researched at all. The potential for misuse is incredible - someone could deliberately plant false information.

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From:

listersgirl

That's good - I didn't know that the changelog existed. And of course there are errors in print resources as well.

I think for me what it comes down to for me is not that there are multiple authors -- most encyclopedias are like that, and that's the way it should be -- but that there doesn't seem to be any way to verify who wrote things or what their credentials are. Obviously, it doesn't mean that the people writing for Wikipedia are any more or less knowledgeable than the people writing for any other reference source, print or online, but that I don't know that, because I don't know who they are. I want to know who they are. I want to be able to look at the article on Beethoven and check what else that person has written.

I mean, whatever, I use it, I think it's great, but mostly as a jumping off point, like you said, or if I need a general idea about something. Because, exactly like they said in the bit you quoted up there, if it's something important, I'm always going to find a second source.

(I don't blame Wikipedia for people who are going to blindly believe everything they read there. I just worry, given what a massive phenomenon it is and the proven trend these days of students to get all their information off the internet without citing or questioning the integrety of the source, that it will become the only authority used.)

From:

marginalia.livejournal.com

well, you can do that to a point. the changelog includes user names, and so sometimes there's a profile and tracking of what other articles they've contributed to.

and if the teachers are willing to accept work that references it as the only authority, that too is a problem outside of wikipedia. there needs to be more education about the integrity of sources. hey! looks like a job for librarians!