Has Wikipedia killed the concept of truth?
Channel 4 News (blog)
This weekend, Wikipedia celebrates its tenth birthday. No doubt many technology and business journalists will be stopping to think about its impact.
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QUOTE(Newsfeed @ Wed 12th January 2011, 2:16pm) 
Moderately intelligent commentary compared to what we usually see, but I can't get to it for a while.
Jon
QUOTE(Jon Awbrey @ Wed 12th January 2011, 9:12pm)
QUOTE(Newsfeed @ Wed 12th January 2011, 2:16pm)
Moderately intelligent commentary compared to what we usually see, but I can't get to it for a while.
Jon
Which bit was the intelligent bit. (Wikipeida is a gateway, first point of call to find out something, has eroded the concept of truth, bla bla). Right.
I always give partial credit for asking the right question …
Jon
Jon
QUOTE
Matthew,
I think we all understand that there are many people of good will who edit Wikipedia. But good will is not what pervades the Wikipedia system as a whole. What pervades Wikipedia over and above everything else is a lack of desire for the truth. So I thank you for asking one of the most important questions that needs to be asked, even if a large part of what you say about Wikipedia falls far short of grasping the realities of what goes on there.
Jon Awbrey, 13 January 2011 at 12:42 am
QUOTE(Peter Damian @ Wed 12th January 2011, 4:27pm)
Which bit was the intelligent bit. (Wikipeida is a gateway, first point of call to find out something, has eroded the concept of truth, bla bla). Right.
I'd say the part where he links the ever-stupider young interns with their experiences with Wikipedia.
QUOTE(thekohser @ Wed 12th January 2011, 6:02pm)
QUOTE(Peter Damian @ Wed 12th January 2011, 4:27pm)
Which bit was the intelligent bit. (Wikipeida is a gateway, first point of call to find out something, has eroded the concept of truth, bla bla). Right.
I'd say the part where he links the ever-stupider young interns with their experiences with Wikipedia.
A friend's kid found out at a Christmas party that I edit Wikipedia. "Did you know Wikipedia is 99% correct?" he said.
"97%," I said.
"I read 99%"
"Show me. And I'll make it say 97%"
Only took him a second.
QUOTE(Milton Roe @ Wed 12th January 2011, 9:53pm)
A friend's kid found out at a Christmas party that I edit Wikipedia. "Did you know Wikipedia is 99% correct?" he said.
"97%," I said.
"I read 99%"
"Show me. And I'll make it say 97%"
Only took him a second.
A systematic study of the 100 articles about U.S. senators showed that they were deliberately wrong about 6.8% of the time. I'd hate to think about the percentage for just plain-old mistakenly wrong.
QUOTE
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