Without a date and time, a link to Wikipedia is to something
that anyone could change, at any time, to anything. (Unless
locked, but that's unlikely to be the case here.)
With a date and time, a link to Wikipedia is at least to a
well-defined piece of text. And in technical areas it is often
good. But there is no quality control or attribution, and
accounts of Wikipedia problems are widespread. I would and
do read such articles, but if the fact is important enough to
need to be referenced, I'd check it, and reference the checked
source. The sources I see as informative references (other
drafts, RFCs, other standards or known bodies, textbooks,
journal papers) almost always have passed higher standard tests.
Finally, this is in line with accepted academic practice. I'm
not an academic, but the last academic advice on the subject
that I've seen (reported by a student to me) was "if you
reference Wikipedia, I will fail you". Can anyone point to any
peer-reviewed paper in a reputable source with a Wikipedia
reference?
--
Christopher Dearlove
Technology Leader, Communications Group
Communications and Networks Capability
BAE Systems Advanced Technology Centre
West Hanningfield Road, Great Baddow, Chelmsford, CM2 8HN, UK
Tel: +44 1245 242194 Fax: +44 1245 242124
BAE Systems (Operations) Limited
Registered Office: Warwick House, PO Box 87,
Farnborough Aerospace Centre, Farnborough, Hants, GU14 6YU, UK
Registered in England & Wales No: 1996687
-----Original Message-----
From: Julian Reschke [mailto:julian(_dot_)reschke(_at_)gmx(_dot_)de]
Sent: 14 December 2010 10:28
To: Dearlove, Christopher (UK)
Cc: Samir Srivastava; Ietf(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org
Subject: Re: Clarification for Copyright to referred material in IETF
draft
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On 14.12.2010 10:57, Dearlove, Christopher (UK) wrote:
I would not consider that a link to Wikipedia is ever appropriate in
an
IETF draft. If it were, then an exact date and time would need to be
included in the reference, but I'd be unhappy even with that. (This is
not for copyright reasons.)
...
Out of curiosity, and because there may be drafts in the pipeline having
links like that...: for which reasons?
(I see why we wouldn't want to cite anything *normatively* there, so you
don't need to explain that part...)
Best regards, Julian
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