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.reschke@xxxxxx] Sent: 14 December 2010 10:28 To: Dearlove, Christopher (UK) Cc: Samir Srivastava; Ietf@xxxxxxxx Subject: Re: Clarification for Copyright to referred material in IETF draft *** WARNING *** This message has originated outside your organisation, either from an external partner or the Global Internet. Keep this in mind if you answer this message. 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 ******************************************************************** This email and any attachments are confidential to the intended recipient and may also be privileged. If you are not the intended recipient please delete it from your system and notify the sender. You should not copy it or use it for any purpose nor disclose or distribute its contents to any other person. ******************************************************************** _______________________________________________ Ietf mailing list Ietf@xxxxxxxx https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf