February 15, 2007: Issue 177
Wikipedia can be a great help when you run across a name, place, or term you’ve never heard before. It can give
Wikipedia can be a great help when you run across a name, place, or term you’ve never heard before. It can give you enough information to lead you to a definitive source—but don’t rely on Wikipedia as your primary source. Anyone can write and edit these entries, so mistakes do show up.
A recent Wikipedia search for Consuelo Bailey, for instance, told us that she was the first woman lieutenant governor in the United States, serving in that office in Vermont from 1955 to 1959. A visit to Vermont’s official Web site confirmed that fact—but Wikipedia listed her middle name as Northrop, while the Vermont site said Northrup.
The Wikipedia entry for Sharpie used to say that “Magic Marker and Sharpie are both generic brand names used for medium-tip markers.” Wrong. They’re both trademarks. (That entry has since been updated.)
In short, use Wikipedia as a starting point, but check your facts with a more reliable reference.
And about that name: Wiki means fast in Hawaiian, so Wikipedia was coined to mean fast encyclopedia. According to Wikipedia itself, wiki is acceptable as a generic term for a collaborative reference source or for the software that helps compile it: a wiki site, a wiki engine. But then again, we have no idea who wrote that.
Fun download: To hear Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales answer questions about odd, obscure information on his Web site (and to hear him promise that the name has nothing to do with polytheistic religions), click here and download Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me! from November 4, 2006.
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