Unlike Martin Cohen in his “Idiotica” rant (Commentary, Bulletin, October 2008), I’ve had good experiences with Wikipedia. I “watch” 88 articles and most are not prone to many errors, even including the one about me. Mistakes are often corrected quickly by other users or editors.

For example, I went on Wiki­­pe­dia, and couldn’t find in the entries on either Hitler or National Socialism the place where Cohen dedu­ced that “Hit­ler greatly admired Russian communism, saying: ‘The whole of National Socialism is based on it.’”

Nor could I find the quotations Cohen offers about Socrates, although the Wikipedia editors do make the point repeatedly that what we know about Socrates is often fil­tered through Plato. And for Cohen’s third example, that Wiki­pe­dia claims “Mao’s political philosophy is essentially the use of violence to suppress dissent,” although the article does give due consideration to Mao’s use of violence and executions, this is just one among many other political activities that are mentioned.

Unlike the Bulletin, whose mistakes can’t be immediately corrected, it’s fortunate that Wikipedia can be. I’m glad some Wikipedia user — perhaps Cohen — edited the mistakes out, because as even he realizes, this online source of information is an important resource for our students — and more covertly, our colleagues.

Barry Wellman
S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology
NetLab Director
University of Toronto

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