The Wall Street Journal set up an interesting and extremely enlightening e-mail debate between Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, and Dale Hoiberg, editor-in-chief of Britannica.
I expected a polite statement of principles and strengths, and an establishment of the differences between the two encyclopedias, but a semi-playful banter develops, suggesting more tension than one might expect. Or perhaps not, as people seem to choose a side in this debate and defend it strongly.
I use the Wikipedia a lot more than Britannica, mainly because I don’t own a set of the latter, and a high speed internet connection makes use of the former quite easy. I consider the Wikipedia to be a research definer: a tool to help one establish exactly what information one needs to search for. If you don’t know what you need to find, it becomes harder to know where to find it.
I think this is an Apples and Oranges thing: I wouldn’t recommend making an apple pie using oranges, nor using apple juice in a Screwdriver.
from ResourceShelf
