untangling_the_web

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denominator. For more on this topic, read Jaron Lanier's now famous think
piece "Digital Maoism" and the many responses to it on Edge.org. 81
~ Finally, Wikipedia has no editorial quality review. Traditional encyclopedias do
not guarantee zero mistakes; what they do promise are "strong scholarship,
sound judgment, and disciplined editorial review."82
All this being said, nothing is going to stop people from using Wikipedia as a
reference, in many cases, their primary source for information. Some search
engines-for example, Ask-now proudly display Wikip~dia responses at the top of
the results list. Most will return Wikipedia links near the top. The best advice I can
give you vis-a-vis Wikipedia and related community generated resources is as
follows:
~ Use multiple sources: Do not as a rule rely on Wikipedia as your sole
reference or source of information. Any Wikipedia entry that is not well
sourced should raise a red flag.
~ Trust but Verify: Look for verification of Wikipedia information from sources
such as traditional references that have been through editorial review:
encyclopedias, dictionaries, scholarly (peer-reviewed) publications, university
websites, books, etc.
~ Follow those links: The best thing about Wikipedia in my opinion are the
external links from entries; with the virtual demise of web directories,
Wikipedia fills that void by supplying excellent links to what are often the best
websites on a topic.
~ Be skeptical: The more controversial the topic, the more skepticism you need
to apply to the Wikipedia entry. For example, the article "Asteroid" is quite well
done, but there isn't quite the controversy about that topic that there is about,
say, Hezbollah, an article that was locked because of vandalism.
Wikipedia has an internal search option, but as any Wikipedia user knows, it is not
the best way to search Wikipedia. First, unlike virtually every search engine on the
web, its default is OR not AND, meaning it searches for ANY of the terms you enter.
To search Wikipedia content you are better off using a separate search engine,
either one of the major search engines or a specialty search tool designed to search
Wikipedia.
81 Jaron Lanier, "Digital Maoism," Edge.org, June 2006,
(14 November 2006).
82 "Britannica Rips Nature Magazine on Accuracy Study," Encyclopedia Britannica Corporate
Website, 24 March 2006, (14 November
2006).
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