How accurate is online information?

摘要

In December, 2005, Nature published a report in which it claimed that, in terms of science articles, Wikipedia was as accurate as the Encyclopedia Britannica. Britannica was furious; the Nature study was "a pattern of sloppiness", they thundered, and they rejected its findings. Doubtless, the encyclopedia felt it had a legitimate grievance, but its outraged response betrayed something else: the skittish fear of a threatened incumbent. Wikipedia, which had only been around for 4 years at the time, repudiated the old methodology: it could be edited by anyone.