Know it all - by Stacy Schiff

• CAN WIKIPEDIA CONQUER EXPERTISE ?
• Wikipedia functions as a filter for vast amounts of information online, and it could be said that Google owes the site for tidying up the neighborhood.
• Anyone with Internet access can create a Wikipedia entry or edit an existing one.
• Wikipedia, which began as an experiment in unfettered democracy, has sprouted policies and procedures.
• At the same time, the site embodies our newly casual relationship to truth.
• the wiki, a simple software tool that allows for collaborative writing and editing.
• At the beginning, there were no formal rules, though Sanger eventually posted a set of guidelines on the site. The first was "Ignore all the rules." Two of the others have become central tenets: articles must reflect a neutral point of view, and their content must be both verifiable and previously published.
• Is Wikipedia accurate?
• According to the survey, Wikipedia had four errors for every three of Britannica's, a result that, oddly, was hailed as a triumph for the upstart.
• Larry Sanger proposes a fine distinction between knowledge that is useful and knowledge that is reliable, and there is no question that Wikipedia beats every other source when it comes to breadth, efficiency, and accessibility. Yet the site's virtues are also liabilities.
• The bulk of Wikipedia's content originates not in the stacks but on the Web, which offers up everything from breaking news, spin, and gossip to proof that the moon landings never took place.
• Wikipedia remains a lumpy work in progress. The entries can read as though they had been written by a seventh grader: clarity and concision are lacking; the facts may be sturdy, but the connective tissue is either anemic or absent; and citation is hit or miss.
• As was the Encyclopedia, Wikipedia is a combination of manifesto and reference work.