[WikiEN-l] "Can you trust Wikipedia?"

Thu Oct 27 18:43:57 UTC 2005

Neil Harris wrote:

> The Guardian has a story entitled "Can you trust Wikipedia?" in which 
> various specialists rate Wikipedia articles in their field of 
> knowledge: http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,1599116,00.html
>
> At the very least, it will draw attention to the articles reviewed, 
> particularly the article on [[haute couture]], which Vogue's editor 
> rated at 0/10.
>
> Noted Wikipedia critic Robert McHenry rates the [[Encylopedia]] 
> article at 5/10: not nearly good enough, but it's a start... it might 
> well be worthwhile to try to improve Wikipedia's McHenry Index by 
> improving the quality of this article, and backing up its statement 
> with solid cites. Downplaying the self-reference to Wikipedia own 
> fabulousness might be a useful first step.
>
> The other article ratings were:
>
> [[Steve Reich]] 7/10
> [[Basque people]] 7/10
> [[TS Eliot]] 6/10
> [[Samuel Pepys]] 6/10
> [[Bob Dylan]] 8/10
>
> A friend forwarded me a link to this; they have an interest in one of 
> the fields reviewed, and commented that they were somewhat dubious 
> about the factual accuracy of one of the criticisms made in the 
> article ;-) 

One distinctive feature of Wikipedia is the ability to self-correct.  A 
simple issue like the Wheatley/Wheatly spelling in the Pepys article can 
be checked, and if need be corrected, very quickly.  What would be more 
interesting would be to have these same critics review the same articles 
a month later to comment on the changes that have taken place as a 
result of their criticism.

Ec