Tuesday, August 19, 2014

A Note on Wikipedia

You may note that I link to Wikipedia in my blog when referring to various facts. I am anticipating that many will criticize my use of Wikipedia since it is frowned upon to use it as an academic source.

Let me be clear that I realize this. I know the limitations of Wikipedia. The problem is that I could cite a source somewhere in some library that you would have to go check out, if you could even find it, but we both know you aren't going to do that for a blog post. Wikipedia is the best source I can cite that is freely available and only a click away. Please let me know if you know of another encyclopedia that is free and available online that is put together by professionals.

The reason that I don't have a problem citing Wikipedia as a source is that Wikipedia is a starting point for research. Don't take my word for anything. Don't take Wikipedia's word either. Follow the articles sources and see if they are good.  If you see something that doesn't look right, try to disprove it. Take this and apply it everywhere in life.

That said, Wikipedia is actually a pretty decent source of information. Not perfect but pretty good. You definitely won't see me citing it at work, though.

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