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 <andrew.gray(a)dunelm.org.uk> 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
<charles.r.matthews(a)ntlworld.com> 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
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- Andrew Gray
andrew.gray(a)dunelm.org.uk
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