Al Fasoldt
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. This article has been tagged since November 2006. |
Al Fasoldt is a columnist for the Syracuse Post-Standard and for MacDailyNews; he is notable for criticising Wikipedia for not being an authoritative resource.
In his August 25, 2004 column he quotes Susan Stagnitta, a librarian at Liverpool High School, based upon an e-mail she sent him in response to a column he wrote where he referred readers to Wikipedia for further information about computer history. Fasoldt says she explained to him in her email that Wikipedia "takes the idea of open source one step too far for most of us."[1]. The Wikimedia Foundation board asked Susan Stagnitta for further comment,[2] and she wrote:
I just re-read what I originally sent to Al Fasoldt in the recent Post-Standard column. I'm afraid I do have egg all over my face... The message was NOT... that Wikipedia is not an authoritative source. The message was that the best thing about the web (the sharing of information and ideas) can also make it harder for the average high school student to make a judgement call when checking the authority of a source used for research.
I'm sorry if this generated controversy over the authority of the site, this is NOT what was intended. It just illustrates the problem.
– Susan Stagnitta, [2]
