The Wikipedia worries me. Not because it is enormously vast in the information available there, and continuing to grow. No, even print encyclopedias grow and change with time to some extent at least. But the value being placed on the information there scares me.
The expectation of the founders of Wikipedia was that it would contain factually correct and unbiased information, but without any quality control that cannot always be true. After all, there is no control over who can make an entry, NOR over who can edit it. Totally false information could be there and some (unsuspecting??) college student could use it in their research. If that student does not verify the information from another source... well, he/she will be continuing down the path of a society that has made movie stars and sports figures into experts. But don't get me started on that... that's for another day. And we don't even have to go far to see the problems with the Wiki. The first time I looked up CIU I was almost breathless with the misinformation I found there, and I quickly became one of the millions of editors.
I am not alone in my worry. I know that lots of other librarians share my worry. And we are not alone, either. I read today that Larry Sanger, one of Wikipedia's founders, has become so disenchanted with the Wikipedia system of contribution and editing that he helped create, that he has founded another contribution-knowledge, wiki-based resource called Citizendium, which will be edited by experts with demonstrated credentials.
Now THAT is a wikipedia I can "live" with. Of course, time will tell whether Larry is able to keep the integrity of the information in Citizendium.
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