Circulation » wikipedia http://lindybrown.com/blog Mixing Student Affairs & Information Sciences Sat, 28 Jan 2012 22:52:59 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Wikipedia: a reminder to double check your sources! http://lindybrown.com/blog/2010/04/wikipedia-a-reminder-why-it-may-not-always-be-the-best-source/ http://lindybrown.com/blog/2010/04/wikipedia-a-reminder-why-it-may-not-always-be-the-best-source/#comments Fri, 09 Apr 2010 02:32:42 +0000 lindybr1 http://lindybrown.com/blog/?p=1440 The development of Wikipedia is a wonderful story and splendid example of the power of community, but I am reminded of the importance of double-checking my sources, especially when referring to community-edited content. While not intentional, a Huffington Post blurb about the “Funniest Acts of Vandalism on Wikipedia Ever” calls attention to this.

Out of curiosity, I went to Bill Gates’ Wikipedia page, clicked on the ‘history‘ option to see all the revisions and then did a control-F (aka find) for “vandalism.” In the first 500 revisions, I found 22 cases of vandalism — some funny, some probably honest mistakes and some just downright mean. This is a reminder of the speed at which these pages may change and at any moment, you could be reading erroneous information… or see a mustache painted on someone’s picture.

Always double-check your sources for confirmation of information!

]]> http://lindybrown.com/blog/2010/04/wikipedia-a-reminder-why-it-may-not-always-be-the-best-source/feed/ 1