Wikipedia accuracy

The December 2005 article in Nature, “Internet encyclopaedias go head to head,” reveals the amazing accuracy of WikiPedia. Despite the fact that it is over 10 times the size of “traditional” print-based and commercial encyclopedias, WikiPedia contains about the same number of inaccuracies per entry as Encyclopedia Britannica. Consider this quotation from the article:

The exercise revealed numerous errors in both encyclopaedias, but among 42 entries tested, the difference in accuracy was not particularly great: the average science entry in Wikipedia contained around four inaccuracies; Britannica, about three.

Considering how Wikipedia articles are written, that result might seem surprising. A solar physicist could, for example, work on the entry on the Sun, but would have the same status as a contributor without an academic background. Disputes about content are usually resolved by discussion among users.

Considering the 2002 Encyclopedia Britannica had 85,000 articles, and as of last night the English WikiPedia had over 987,000 articles, it is is clear that the size of Wikipedia compared to alternatives makes it actually far more accurate than traditional encyclopedias. For more up to date and comprehensive statistics on the size of WikiPedia (in over 200 languages,) refer to WikiPedia Size Comparisons.

Are your students using the WikiPedia. Are they contributing to it and editing entries? They should be.

Thanks to David Thornburg for sharing this article during his session at TCEA 2006.

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