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Wikipedia-Sponsored Pilot Study Lauds Wikipedia Accuracy
netbuzz writes "The Wikimedia Foundation today is releasing the results of a 'pilot study' it commissioned last year to assess the accuracy and quality of Wikipedia in such a way that it would provide a methodology blueprint for others do more thorough reviews of online encyclopedias. The results are in, and despite ready acknowledgment of the small sample size and paragraphs worth of other caveats, the parents of Wikipedia can't help but note that its baby was judged to have outperformed other online encyclopedias, including Encyclopedia Britannica, in three different languages. Britannica, which disputed the Wikipedia-friendly results of a much-cited Fortune comparison report back in 2005, has yet to offer a reply to this one."
Yep, because wikipedia makes so much money off of everyone using all their bandwidth with no ads.
The 'direct funding' is the key. If you want to have someone do impartial research, hire a third party to hire a researcher for you. That way, you don't know who the researcher is, and the researcher doesn't know who the customer is.