Re: [Wikimediauk-l] TLS review of Jack Lynch, You Could Look It Up

[John Lubbock]

Thanks for this Charles and Andrew, this is exactly the kind of thing that
we would like to feature on our social media channels. It's by far one of
the most even handed looks at the strengths and weaknesses of Wikipedia and
therefore something that is useful to share to help people understand
Wikimedia projects better.

If you see stuff like this in future please let me know so I can repost it!

John

On 26 May 2016 at 13:42, Andrew Gray  wrote:

> The Thonemann article turns out to be public (about a third of TLS
> articles are):
>
> http://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/public/encyclopedic-knowledge/
>
> I rather enjoyed this -
>
> "Given the manner of its compilation, the accursed thing really is a
> whole lot more reliable than it has any right to be. Like many
> university lecturers, I used to warn my own students off using
> Wikipedia (as pointless an injunction as telling them not to use
> Google, or not to leave their essay to the last minute). I finally
> gave up doing so about three years ago, after reading a paper by an
> expert on South Asian coinage in which the author described the
> Wikipedia entry on the Indo-Greek Kingdom (c.200 BC–AD 10) as the most
> reliable overview of Indo-Greek history to be found anywhere – quite
> true, though not necessarily as much of a compliment to Wikipedia as
> you might think."
>
> Andrew.
>
> On 26 May 2016 at 11:56, Charles Matthews
>  wrote:
> > Enjoyable two-page review today in the Times Literary Supplement by Peter
> > Thonemann, flagged on the front page as "The triumph of Wikipedia?"
> >
> > Lynch's book You Could Look It Up has the subtitle "The reference shelf
> from
> > ancient Babylon", and WP is duly mentioned in the review at length, with
> > Rich Farmbrough getting a namecheck.
> >
> > Thonemann is at Wadham College, Oxford, and gives good quotes: e.g.
> > "Wiki-editors are, in my experience, an exceptionally friendly and
> helpful
> > bunch".
> >
> > Charles
> >
> >
> > ___
> > Wikimedia UK mailing list
> > wikimediau...@wikimedia.org
> > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l
> > WMUK: https://wikimedia.org.uk
>
>
>
> --
> - Andrew Gray
>   andrew.g...@dunelm.org.uk
>
> ___
> Wikimedia UK mailing list
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Re: [Wikimediauk-l] TLS review of Jack Lynch, You Could Look It Up

[Andrew Gray]

The Thonemann article turns out to be public (about a third of TLS
articles are):

http://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/public/encyclopedic-knowledge/

I rather enjoyed this -

"Given the manner of its compilation, the accursed thing really is a
whole lot more reliable than it has any right to be. Like many
university lecturers, I used to warn my own students off using
Wikipedia (as pointless an injunction as telling them not to use
Google, or not to leave their essay to the last minute). I finally
gave up doing so about three years ago, after reading a paper by an
expert on South Asian coinage in which the author described the
Wikipedia entry on the Indo-Greek Kingdom (c.200 BC–AD 10) as the most
reliable overview of Indo-Greek history to be found anywhere – quite
true, though not necessarily as much of a compliment to Wikipedia as
you might think."

Andrew.

On 26 May 2016 at 11:56, Charles Matthews
 wrote:
> Enjoyable two-page review today in the Times Literary Supplement by Peter
> Thonemann, flagged on the front page as "The triumph of Wikipedia?"
>
> Lynch's book You Could Look It Up has the subtitle "The reference shelf from
> ancient Babylon", and WP is duly mentioned in the review at length, with
> Rich Farmbrough getting a namecheck.
>
> Thonemann is at Wadham College, Oxford, and gives good quotes: e.g.
> "Wiki-editors are, in my experience, an exceptionally friendly and helpful
> bunch".
>
> Charles
>
>
> ___
> Wikimedia UK mailing list
> wikimediau...@wikimedia.org
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l
> WMUK: https://wikimedia.org.uk



-- 
- Andrew Gray
  andrew.g...@dunelm.org.uk

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[Wikimediauk-l] TLS review of Jack Lynch, You Could Look It Up

[Charles Matthews]

Enjoyable two-page review today in the Times Literary Supplement by Peter
Thonemann, flagged on the front page as "The triumph of Wikipedia?"

Lynch's book You Could Look It Up has the subtitle "The reference shelf from
ancient Babylon", and WP is duly mentioned in the review at length, with Rich
Farmbrough getting a namecheck.

Thonemann is at Wadham College, Oxford, and gives good quotes: e.g.
"Wiki-editors are, in my experience, an exceptionally friendly and helpful
bunch".

Charles___
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