NYT - A Little Sleuthing Unmasks Writer of Wikipedia Prank

[rman]

NYT
A Little Sleuthing Unmasks Writer of Wikipedia Prank
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
Published: December 11, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/11/business/media/11web.html?ex=1291957200&en=a50503d3b281b485&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt

It started as a joke and ended up as a shot heard round the Internet, with the joker losing his job and Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, suffering a blow to its credibility.

A man in Nashville has admitted that, in trying to shock a colleague with a joke, he put false information into a Wikipedia entry about John Seigenthaler Sr., a former editor of The Tennessean in Nashville.

Brian Chase, 38, who until Friday was an operations manager at a small delivery company, told Mr. Seigenthaler on Friday that he had written the material suggesting that Mr. Seigenthaler had been involved in the assassinations of John and Robert Kennedy. Wikipedia, a nonprofit venture that is the world's biggest encyclopedia, is written and edited by thousands of volunteers.

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[wellst0nev0ter]

1. I'm Only Surprised

that anyone would take that site as seriously as they did. Sure it's a good resource, but caveat emptor.

[rman]

2. Wiki's credibility seems to be restored

now that the saboteur who caused doubt about wiki's credibility in the first place, has been exposed.

What's dangerous is when people rely on a source that has centralized control over the info it presents - where the credibility of the source is associated with the source being some sort of absolute authority that is beyond question.

Wiki at least is open to question. It follows the open-source paradigm that "information wants to be free".
And i think it's clear that particular individuals of a certain political inclination do very much prefer absolute authority in information - as much as they have reason not to like wiki...


Iran-Contra Affair
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran-Contra

Operation Northwoods
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Northwood

Bay of Pigs Invasion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_of_Pigs_Invasion

Socialism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism

Sibel Edmonds
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sibel_Edmonds

Diebold
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diebold


I could go on, but i won't.