Daily Thoughts 9/18/2009

I like Wikipedia. This is a Creative Commons Share Alike Attribution 2.0 image from Wikimedia.

Daily Thoughts 9/18/2009

I enjoy using Wikipeda a huge amount. I like the photographs, the images, the content. I also realize that it is not always accurate. This seems to be most true around politics where different politicians try to rewrite each others content. I think of it as primarily a secondary source. You look at it to get a general outline of a subject but don't assume it is authoritative or even completely accurate.

Generally, I will read the articles, then go to the places which the Wikipedia article sited and check those to see if they are a more primary source. Quite often the documents point to a government website like NASA, or a depository of primary source material like Project Gutenberg with original works. This is one of the reasons I like Wikipedia so much. Not for the content, but for the materials cited.

Today I took some more time to relax. No reading today, except for the news on the internet.