Wikipedia: Not so bad

Wikipedia has been under siege by the INTA and prominent Trademark attorneys/bloggers. The complaint is the same as the complaint against the Acronym Finder : non-experts can post information on these sites. Therefore, the information may not be accurate - or it might. Who knows?

However, a recent study in the journal Nature found that Wikipedia had only slightly more errors than the venerable Encyclopedia Britannica.

The study revealed numerous errors in both encyclopaedias, but among 42 entries tested, the difference in accuracy was not particularly great: the average science entry in Wikipedia contained around four inaccuracies; Britannica, about three.

I'd say Wikipedia can be just as useful and probative as anything else, but like any evidence, it's rebuttable; I certainly wouldn't rely on it alone.