More on Wikipedia, Seigenthaler, and Networked Information in Sunday’s Boston Globe
Matthew Battles, an editor of the Harvard Library Bulletin and author, writes in the Sunday Globe’s Ideas section about Wikipedia.
He presents some ideas about how people who understand the workings of networked information can have more power than subject experts:
"The Seigenthaler affair points up a crucial condition of the Internet’s information ecology: It’s a system that doesn’t select for truth. Currency, controversy, charisma, fascination-these count much more in determining the vitality and survivability of online articles, facts, or ‘memes.’ In the 21st century’s networked knowledge environment, truth will be less and less identified by the imprimatur of expert writers and invisible, omnicompetent editors, but by readers who understand the principles of networked information."
He also provides a brief history of encyclopedias.
There are a few things I want to tweak in his article, but since it isn’t on a wiki, I can’t. Anonymous users can no longer post new articles to Wikipedia. (This recent change might have happened after Battles had to turn in his column.) I’m not sure where Battles found the 700,000 figure. The main page of the English edition listed 871,253 when I checked it at about 2:30 pm. The encyclopedia in its entirety supposedly has more than 1,000,000 entries. Perhaps the English version had far fewer articles when Battles wrote his editorial.
It’s my understanding from other press coverage of the John Seigenthaler situation that he chose not to pursue other means of getting his entry corrected other than by contacting Jimmy Wales. The wording in the editorial almost implies that changing the entry was not possible from the start. Seigenthaler probably could have edited it himself had he wanted to. I’m really glad Battles mentioned that the article’s creator confessed and apologized.
I’ve never heard anyone refer to Ward Cunningham as Howard, so I had to do a little digging to find out if Howard is really his first name.
December 18th, 2005 at 4:19 pm
still in the dark, so is Howard, really Ward’s first name??
December 18th, 2005 at 9:46 pm
Wikipedia rules — check out this site
I threw together to search google & blogs & wikipedia
from the same form – blinkpop.com!
December 20th, 2005 at 2:47 pm
How hard was it to confirm when Wikipedia’s article about him starts “Ward Cunningham. Howard G. Cunningham”?
Article count measures vary depending on whether you want to count only those bigger than a stub (small, presumed insignificant) threshold. The total count for English language, any size, at the time I post this is 905302. Those greater than 512 characters are 736818; greater than 256 characters are 847598. Namespace 0 (articles) only, redirects excluded. There are also 793044 redirects (alternative index entries for a topic).
The first correction appeared with this edit:
11:06, 23 September 2005 . . 69.172.115.157 (This is the correct bio. The previous entry was bogus.)
Note that it was by an anonymous user. The edit completely replaced the controversial one, replacing it with the complete text of this biography: http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/biography.aspx?name=seigenthaler . Two weeks before Jimmy Wales did anything, the offensive content had been removed from the version of the article being generally distributed. It’s likely that this edit was carried out by Mr. Seigenthaler Sr. or someone acting on his behalf.
The first clear involvment of Jimmy Wales happened with these later edits:
22:26, 7 October 2005 Essjay restored “John Seigenthaler Sr.” (2 revisions restored)
22:24, 7 October 2005 Essjay deleted “John Seigenthaler Sr.” (Delete per Jimbo in IRC)
As of today, there are 255 revisions of the Seigenthaler article which are not visible in the public history but are visible to administrators. Most of those are in a version moved to /temp (232 versions) and a few in /temp2. The offensive versions appear to be completely gone, not available even to administrators and presumably no longer in the database at all. I’ve no idea how many revisions are completely gone, though the list does include these (all of which contained the offensive content when I reviewed them a few weeks ago, apparently before Mr. Seigenthaler noticed it):
21:52, 29 May 2005 . . SNIyer12
14:29, 26 May 2005 . . 65.81.97.208
19:53, 15 September 2004 . . 65.170.144.130
Seems to be a glitch involved, since I assume it wasn’t deliberately done, if only because there remains the possibility of legal action and tampering with the record would probably not be appreciated by a judge.
December 20th, 2005 at 3:08 pm
Wowza! Thanks for the stats, James!
As for believing that Ward Cunningham’s first name is really Howard based on the Wikipedia entry, it’s all in whether you consider Wikipedia to be a reliable source or not. ; )
The 60th edition of Marquis’ Who’s Who lists Ward Cunningham with Howard G. Cunningham in parentheses after it. Since Who’s Who is also a source that can sometimes be incorrect, take that information as you may. Most people submit their own information, so it’s possible Ward put in both names.
December 20th, 2005 at 8:35 pm
Corection: I should note that Eric Newton has claimed to be the person who pasted the First Amendment Center biography into the Seigenthaler article. Don’t know whether he knew or considered whether it would be copyright infringment when he did it.