[Air-l] Wikipedia warning -- Wikipedia is not a reliable information source

[Andrew Lih]

On 12/5/05, Bram Dov Abramson <bda at bazu.org> wrote:
> On:
> >I have informed my students that they may no longer use Wikipedia as
> >a reference or source on papers in my courses. I urge you to consider
> >a similar statement. While Wikipedia may be a useful first step in
> >seeking information, I no longer accept it as a credible source.
> >Therefore, I advise students to look further when a project requires
> >a reliable source.

Wikipedia should be treated no differently than any encyclopedia in
this respect - you can't use it as a source. That's been true for me
ever since junior high school.

As someone who has been involved with the project for many years, I
still tell my students - don't cite it as a source, or you'll be
marked down.

> Recently I've been discovering Wikipedia, and my thoughts had run in a
> different direction.  Has anyone integrated Wikipedia into their
> courses, not as a source, but as a destination?  Are there courses out
> there where students are being asked to *update* Wikipedia?

I've been doing so for the last few years:
http://edition.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/08/03/wikipedia/

For a complete list see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:School_and_University_projects

-Andrew Lih
University of Hong Kong