The Accuracy of Wikipedia

Will Richardson posts in weblogg-ed:

Research on Wikipedia/Trusting the Source of the Source

(Via Smart Mobs) So here is a research study (and I mean research, full of all sorts of funny looking formulas and symbols and stuff) about Wikipedia that comes to the conclusion that the more edits there are to a particular article the more accurate it is.

This makes sense to me even though it contradicts the fears of many educators. And it is interesting in relation to something I've recently learned about the Wikipedia founders starting a new venture:

As posted in Accelating Minds:

Wikipedia 2.0

The folks at Wikipedia are launching a new site, Citizendium. It strives to become a more authoritative version of its predecessor, and a boon for us in education. It looks to me like, after registering and signing in, students can still research and then contribute to the pages.

I just wonder if this is really needed. I'm not sure it will be able to get the same kind of traction that Wikipedia already has.

Found by SETI

We hear so much about the potential dangers of social networking and being so interconnected. Here's a great little anecdote as antidote to the negativity...

From the Gadget Lab blog:

SETI Project Finds Something: Stolen Laptop

The thieves didn't bother to wipe the machine, so it kept running the SETI program, which periodically registers an IP address with the project's main server.

And I guess you could also call this a victory for reverse engineering -- or, in this case, reverse computing!