Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Wikipedia founder admits to serious quality problems | The Register
Wikipedia founder admits to serious quality problems | The Register: "Wales was responding to author Nicholas Carr, who in a dazzling post on the transcendent New Age 'hive-mind' rhetoric that envelops the 'Web 2.0' bubble, took time out to examine the quality of two entries picked at random: Bill Gates and Jane Fonda.
He wasn't impressed by what he saw.
'This is garbage, an incoherent hodge-podge of dubious factoids that adds up to something far less than the sum of its parts,' he wrote.
Something that aspires to be a reference work ought to be judged by the quality of the worst entry, he said, in response to the clock-stopped, right-time defense of the project, not by the fact it's got some good articles.
'In theory, Wikipedia is a beautiful thing - it has to be a beautiful thing if the Web is leading us to a higher consciousness,' writes Carr."
He wasn't impressed by what he saw.
'This is garbage, an incoherent hodge-podge of dubious factoids that adds up to something far less than the sum of its parts,' he wrote.
Something that aspires to be a reference work ought to be judged by the quality of the worst entry, he said, in response to the clock-stopped, right-time defense of the project, not by the fact it's got some good articles.
'In theory, Wikipedia is a beautiful thing - it has to be a beautiful thing if the Web is leading us to a higher consciousness,' writes Carr."
