After Alexander M.C. Halavais, an assistant professor of communications, added mistakes throughout dozens of Wikipedia articles, he was surprised to see how quickly they were all fixed.
Mr. Halavais expected some of his fabrications to languish online for some time. Like many academics, he was skeptical about a mob-edited publication that called itself an authoritative encyclopedia. But less than three hours after he posted them, all of his false facts had been deleted, thanks to the vigilance of Wikipedia editors who regularly check a page on the Web site that displays recently updated entries. On Dr. al-Halawi’s “user talk” page, one Wikipedian pleaded with him to “refrain from writing nonsense articles and falsifying information.”
Academia remains skeptical of Wikipedia; do you consider it to be a credible source?
Source: Chronicle of Higher Education
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