wikitruth

Simson L. Garfinkel in Technology Review argues that Wikipedia has refined truth. From “Wikipedia and the Meaning of Truth:”

“On Wikipedia, objective truth isn’t all that important, actually. What makes a fact or statement fit for     inclusion is that it appeared in some other publication–ideally, one that is in English and is available free online. ‘The threshold for inclusion in Wikipedia is verifiability, not truth,’ states Wikipedia’s official policy on the subject.”

Read on. What do you think? Is this an accurate description of the situation? Does this match your own thinking?

Wiki-Britannica-pedia

. . . The encyclopedias, they are a-changin’ . . .

And, this isn’t just an ordinary encyclopedia, this is the Encyclopaedia Britannica . . . and it’s going wiki.

Read more here, “Encyclopaedia Britannica goes –Gasp!– Wiki,” from The Chronicle of Higher Education.

new year, new search

Happy New Year, everyone!

It’s a new year, so why not a new search engine??

From BBC News, Wikipedia announces that it’s moving into the world of community-run search engines. For more, read, “Wikipedia creator turns to search.”

wikipedia vs. britannica: the debate continues

Now, for something a little bit different . . .

The Wall Street Journal invited Wikipedia founder, Jimmy Wales, and Dale Hoiberg, editor-in-chief of Britannica, to a debate . . . via email. And, get this, they agreed! Not sure what, if anything, this adds to the substance of the debate already going . . . and going . . . about this topic, but there are some rather catty email exchanges involved that make for almost tabloid-style reading and show that email is probably not the best place to engage in debates and other similar meaningful discussions.

“Will Wikipedia Mean the End of Traditional Encyclopedias?” The Wall Street Journal

Wikipedia, Encyclopedia Britannica, and Nature

The Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Britannica battle continues, and Nature is being called to task, to put it lightly.

The title of the article says it all: “Nature Mag Cooked Wikipedia Study,” by Andrew Orlowski, The Register

See the end of the 2-page article for more links to articles in The Register about this story as it developed over the last several months.