Monday, Aug. 24, 2009
Wikipedia
In 2004, the editor of the Encyclopedia Britannica wrote an article called "The Faith-Based Encyclopedia" in which he compared Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia that anyone can update and edit, to a public toilet. The following year the world's most distinguished scientific journal, Nature, decided to compare Wikipedia and Britannica in a blind taste test. Nature's conclusion? That Wikipedia and Britannicaare roughly equal when it comes to accuracy. That finding is disputed by Britannica. Naturestands by its story. And Wikipedia, of course, documents Britannica's beef with Nature in a mind-numbingly complete wiki entry.