Wikipedia as an Academic Reference: Faculty and Student Viewpoints

Wikis are becoming popular with business and academia as a way to harvest, archive, and manage knowledge. One of the most popular and well-known wikis is Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia started by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger in 2001. Since its inception, much has been written (both pro and con) about Wikipedia; however, Wikipedia is one of the most popular sites on the Internet today. As its popularity increases, more and more “net generation” students will be utilizing its articles as reference sources for academic work. This paper explores the emerging “wiki way” of Web 2.0 tools and highlights the good, the bad, and the management of Wikipedia as an academic reference. Further, this paper benchmarks how faculty and students are using Wikipedia, as well as exploring their viewpoint on using this information in the academic environment