Now, don't get me wrong. I read through Wikipedia as much as anyone else. It's educational and most of it is well-written. In fact, Wikipedia is what makes the Internet the greatest man-made creation ever. What works with Wikipedia is the ability to pull so much information about an entity, term, or idea in one place. It's updated by companies and professionals from all over the world and encompasses almost everything under the sun. That said, it should never be your primary reference for anything at all. And you should always read through it with a certain amount of reserve, skepticism, and outright humor.
Nothing is perfect
No reference is ever perfect. During the time of Collier's Encyclopedia, Funk & Wagnall's, Grolier's, and the original British editions of Encyclopedia Britannica, readers (like me) thought it was the be-all and end-all of information. Despite yearly updates to published encyclopedias, the text was mostly static. For example, an article on "demonology" in Collier's in 1995 was the same article in 1996 though the encyclopedia was a trifle thicker with new entries to the letter "D".
Television, radio, and printed news evolved into the Internet and proved that information can be recorded real-time and can be "complete". The Internet isn't complete (try looking for the Japanese audio, English subtitled Power Stone series aired in AXN online), but it's very close to being damn omniscient. And Wikipedia.org has its finger in all of the pies. However, because of the very movement of change, time, and progress, nothing can ever stay current and human fallibility ensures that a paragraph, text, or item in an entry in Wikipedia can be grossly wrong.
I was a huge fan of the now-defunct Encyclopedia Britannica Reference Suite and Microsoft Encarta, but even I read their articles with a grain of salt. It's the same with Wikipedia.org - multiplied by 7. The sad truth is that many students pull up articles on TCP/IP or RAM in Wikipedia rather than crack open an O'Reilly ebook written by IT professionals or visit reference sites from IBM, Cisco, RedHat, or Oracle. Even if they get the basics right (and Wikipedia has more than a 1000 lines of text on the subject), isn't the point. The point is that when doing any type of research, you have to refer to the best source and visit multiple sources. Although TCP/IP isn't as subjective as say, the works of Elizabeth Barett Browning, RedHat, Oracle, Microsoft, and Cisco approach TCP/IP from different perspectives much in the same way critics analyze "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" differently.
Do not use Wikipedia as your primary source for tech stuff!
One point of View
Wikipedia.org is just one point of view on any serious topic and even trivial ones. Due to its very public nature, Wikipedia is tops when mentioning trivial information about a Chinese weapon or a Korean pop group like SNSD. Linux users can find a brief outline of IBM's contribution to open source or the criticisms leveraged against Novell. The small bits of information that is left out in most books and other serious references it what makes Wikipedia awesome. But it is definitely not fool proof.
Entertainment - Encyclopedia style
Wikipedia is also a great source of entertainment because of its all-encompassing nature, brevity, and formal writing style. Tired of BBC or New York Times but no time to pick up an ebook? Hate the severely biased comments about a celebrity on the Soup or in some blog? Hit Wikipedia. I occasionally look up articles on Marvel characters like Hulk or Dr. Strange on Wikipedia.org just to keep up with recent storylines and character changes (though nothing beats a devoted fan site when it comes to accuracy). Wikipedia is great for trying to catch up on the significance of historical events in Mad Men, or figuring out if the fourth season of Fringe is worth watching (not without Joshua Jackson it isn't). Movies, directors, and video games like Zelda and franchises like James Bond are all in Wikipedia. The article writers are enthusiastic, comprehensive, and wonderfully superfluous.
"Don't you know I'm in Wikipedia.org, my dear?"
Looking for a good Japanese work written during the Meiji era? Pull up the entry of Japanese Literature on Wikipedia - but hit Amazon.com or Japanese literature sites for more facts before purchasing the book. Ditto for electronics and consumer products.
Two Ways
If you're a serious researcher/shopper, there are two ways to use Wikipedia properly. Visit Wikipedia first and get an idea on your target then move on to better and more reliable sources. Or, visit Wikipedia after you've done hardcore research from reliable sources - you're sure to find additional tidbits you never thought existed.
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