Jimmy Wales has reminded students not to reference or cite information from the online encyclopedia he founded. Wales has received an average of 10 emails each week complaining that they received poor grades because of Wikipedia.
“Many students complain that they are graded harshly by their teachers simply for using data published on Wikipedia, and upon verification, that information turns out to be completely incorrect“, Wales recounted. However, he does not sympathize with these individuals, believing that students must be cautious when consulting freely editable dictionaries like Wikipedia.
Interestingly, many supporters of Wikipedia view these issues as an opportunity to promote and encourage more people to contribute to the site. Last year, criticisms regarding the inaccuracy of this website were met with a counter-attack arguing that it is the responsibility of the users to correct errors themselves.
Regarding the misinformation on Wikipedia claiming that the renowned journalist John Seigenthaler was involved in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, a supporter named Lore Sjoberg argued: “Seigenthaler should have taken it upon himself to manage all information about him on the site, but he did not make any changes. This is akin to Seigenthaler admitting he killed Kennedy. The court should view this as a confession and convict him. Wikipedia allows anyone to update and edit, so the misinformation is not Wikipedia’s fault“.