Wikipedia, reliable?
Well there has been a bit of political backlash in the Houses of Parliament, as our Prime Minister was accused of getting some facts wrong about Titian and the date of his death. Therefore, while Labour and the Conservative back benchers were arguing over this detail, one enthusiastic Conservative party member decided to tip the scales more in favour of their leader… by amending some entries in Wikipedia. Firstly, Wikipedia is a great source for numerous things and the sky’s the limit in terms of what you can find. Unfortunately, as many of you may know, it’s not exactly 100% accurate for trying to find facts. Put it this way, if I was writing a dissertation paper I wouldn’t be using Wikipedia as a citation.
Secondly, having the entries editable by pretty much anyone can have it’s drawback, as demonstrated here. This is not the first time an inaccurate amendment had been added on there, namely the Dutch Royal Family did something similar to cover up some sordid love affair. It’s all rather amusing I suppose, but still it does highlight a flaw such as the lack of proofing. Having said that, the point of having Wikis is that it is open to everyone, where knowledge can be shared. So it is rather a double edged sword, if you introduce too much regulation then that defeats the whole object.
The funny thing about this story is, the Titian editor must have failed miserably in mathematics because the changes made put both Gordon Brown and David Cameron in the wrong. I guess the rush of adrenaline while typing furiously on Wikipedia’s website must have dropped the IQ a few pegs.
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