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May 1, 2007

"We need to be open to the possibility that colleagues and even strangers have information and perspectives that may be of value to us." --Margaret Wheatley

Free Encyclopaedia Makes Its Mark

One of the extraordinary stories of the Internet age is that of Wikipedia, a free online encyclopaedia that anyone can edit. This radical and rapidly growing publication, which includes close to 4 million entries, is now a much-used resource. "One of the biggest problems of the digital divide is the cost of access to information," says Jimmy Wales, 40, the visionary founder of Wikipedia. "We seek to make that cost as close to zero as possible." That said, Wikipedia's accuracy is often questioned: if anyone can edit entries, how do users know if it is as legitimate as established sources such as Encyclopaedia Britannica? An expert-led investigation carried out by Nature Magazine -- the first to use peer review to compare Wikipedia and Britannica -- suggests that, for science articles, their accuracy levels are quite comparable.