Keeping with the alliterative W (but excluded the prez), the Wall Street Journal reports on Wikipedia woes (subscription may be required)
Jason Fry tells the story of John Seigenthaler, administrative assistant to Robert Kennedy in the early 1960s, and how a fake/false biography had been posted about him, which linked him to JFK's assassination.
On one level, this is nothing new. We've all read the horror stories of pedophiles lurking in teen chatrooms, which chill us to the bone, but they are the exceptions as opposed to the norm.
So what of Fry's essential assertion:
At the heart of this is the fact that at a very basic level, Wikipedia is out of control.
Open for all means what it says...ALL (that's the good, the bad and the ugly) Clearly however, for Wikipedia to continue to grow, evolve and mature...there does need to be some kind of organic policing mechanism (ala an eBay rating for example) along the communal marketing lines (by the community, for the community)
But there is, Mr Jaffe....it's called the Wikipedia. Ultimately, offenders are exposed and inaccuracies obliterated. Perhaps...but it's not good enough. Damage can be done - especially amongst the uninformed. As the WSJ poll above suggests, people are turning to the Wikipedia as a first port of call, and with this power comes immense responsibility in return.
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