A post appeared yesterday on the Wired Campus Blog, titled “Wikipedia Founder Discourages Academic Use of His Creation. I deliberately wrote the title above to not include the word “discourage” because I think he really clarified how they should use it. He said that students shoud not be citing only an encyclopedia, especially in college courses, and that Wikipedia is considering publishing a fact sheet explaining what it is and how it is best used.

In my opinion, Wikipedia should be used to get the “backstory” on something. When you think of a topic, Wikipedia is the ideal source to get information that might not be published by those at the center of the topic, and spark you on a path of inquiry to verify the information, and find out more detail. For example, you’ll find a much more detailed, fact-filled biography of a Representative or Senator on Wikipedia than on her/his Congressional web site, and you can then further research something that interests you.