This article, appearing in today's New York Times, addresses a growing issue for many in
academia. The abundance of instantly and freely available online resources like Wikipedia, compiled by numerous uncompensated contributors, has created a notion that information is simply there for the taking. Apparently some students, while engaged in the writing process, are seeing less and less need for the application of traditional academic processes. For example, the writer cites a case where a student simply copied and pasted sections of a online article into his paper claiming he saw no need to give credit for information that lacked a clear author and was already common knowledge.
John Palfrey and Urs Gasser, authors of Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives, also cover this and similar issues. In conjunction with their book, the duo launched a variety of websites which function to discuss these issues further and to keep the book's information current. The main page is here, but this is a shortcut to their tidbit on Digital Information Quality.
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