Wikiversies
Two controversies over Wikipedia entries (”Wikiversies”) have prompted new editorial policies from the online, massively multi-authored, free encyclopedia.
John Seigenthaler, Sr. wrote an editorial in USA Today to complain that some nitwit had suggested on his Wikipedia entry that he might have been involved in the Kennedy assassination.
The other Wikiversy involves Podcaster Adam Curry annonymously editing an entry about himself. This is prompting consideration of a rule against editing an entry about yourself. Unfortunatley, that would prevent folks like Seigenthaler from correcting entries about themselves. I’m sure this will get worked out rather quickly and rather smoothly with some sensible policies.
I frequently link to Wikipedia and will continue to do so because I think the nature of what it is ensures a level of accountability and reliability that many other sites (or even traditional journalistic sources) simply do not have. Bottom line: it just works.
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December 7th, 2005 at 9:59 pm
I don’t know that it does work. In my experience, the “volunteers” that are the last line of defense with respect to what is posted, seem to let a lot of leftist stuff slide while being pretty picky about conservative slants.
I could be wrong, but that is my experience.
If you don’t mind, shoot me an email at the above address. I have a couple of questions for you…
Best!
December 8th, 2005 at 6:42 am
I’ve never tried to contribute, but I’ve read a lot of the articles and have learned a lot from them. There seems to be a genuine commitment to a neutral point of view and to verifiability.
For example, the McCarthy article is surprisingly neutral and informative given the controversial nature of the subject. The same is true of the Nigerian yellowcake document forgery and related articles. The yellowcake entry is also what led me to this gem. It would be hard to find a more complete and balanced account in any single mainstream media source than what is available at Wikipedia.
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