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Encyclopedia Britannica, Wikipedia

The Wisdom of Crowds Strikes Back

By Joshua S. Hill

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Ever since the introduction of the internet's greatest source of information (in my humble opinion) there has been a lot of debate over just how reliant we should be on Wikipedia. And it is without a doubt that we should be careful when citing the online 'encyclopedia of the people' as a source, but there is no denying just how helpful it is.

For example, most of the information collected there can probably be listed underneath the heading "infallible". I have no doubt that whoever wrote the article on Princess Diana, or on the September 11 attacks got it all right. For the most part, I'm not going to be going to Wikipedia to prove my theory on Ancient Egypt's rise coinciding with the Tower of Babel from the Biblical accounts. But it will at least give me a direction to go.

So it comes as no surprise to find this link from Slashdot, pointing to a site that has provided a list of errors found within the Encyclopedia Britannica, and corrected on Wikipedia.

The entry provides upwards of 60 corrections that cite entries from the hard copy, CD-ROM and online versions of one of the world's most respected encyclopedias.

Corrections include factoids such as the fact that Alexander Pushkin did not actually make himself a frequent guest of the city Karlovy Vary. Corrections concerning King Henry VIII, the Polish September Campaign in WWII and the birthday and year of Joseph Stalin continue the list of historical corrections.

But the corrections go on to include science -- such as a note on the uncertainty principle -- and mathematics -- like the long explanation about NP problems and the mistakes within the EB.

It is definitely worth checking out for yourself, to see whether your celebrated hardbound copies of the Encyclopedia Britannica that sit pride of place in your library, are in fact, mistaken on the life of golfing legend Arnold Palmer.

A Geek's-Geek from Melbourne, Australia, Josh is an aspiring author with dreams of publishing his epic fantasy, currently in the works, sometime in the next 5 years. A techie, nerd, sci-fi nut and bookworm, Josh can be found at JoshSHill.com for his personal blog, or at MyWritingVoice.com for his writing blog.
Joshua can be reached at: letters@canadafreepress.com

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