On Tue, May 4, 2010 at 10:34 AM, Keith Old <[email protected]> wrote: > Folks, > > According to John Graham-Cumming, Wikipedia is a better resource for > researchers than Britannica. > > http://newstilt.com/notthatkindofdoctor/news/wikipedia-trumps-britannia > > <http://newstilt.com/notthatkindofdoctor/news/wikipedia-trumps-britannia>
Thanks for the link to this story. One bit stood out: "Because Wikipedia has a policy of linking to reliable sources it turned out to be a wonderful starting point for research." That sums up the usefulness of Wikipedia where sources are provided. Of course, you still need to check those sources, and unsourced material is a less helpful starting point than sourced material, but all this is key to how to use Wikipedia. The ending quote sums it up nicely as well: "I never relied on Wikipedia as the sole source of information, but it was always a marvellous spring board to get me started." Perfect summary. Source-aggregator, sometimes with well-written text and nice images as well. Though you have to be wary in some areas of editorialising and source-selection issues. Carcharoth _______________________________________________ WikiEN-l mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
