Tech & Biz

Fake Wikipedia prof altered 20,000 entries

by hayao | March 7, 2007 at 08:16 pm

1526 views | 20 Recommendations | 7 comments

Wikipedia, the online encyclopaedia, has been plunged into controversy after one of its most prolific contributors and editors, a professor of religion with advanced degrees in theology and canon law, was exposed as a 24-year-old community college drop-out.

To some extent, this latest issue about Wikipedia is that while new safeguards are being put in place by its management, we cannot easily prevent volunteers who have vested interests, those who can blot out other biopage's profiles and put up some stories to feed their minds.

In a world of new media where there is high hopes for the enrichment of research and communication, we cannot dismiss the fact that there would still be volunteer vandals who may just be after their own agenda. We are just starting to take off in the highly volatile internet space, and we would be facing a whole lot more of things never of us thought or imagined would be possible.

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Jordan Yerman

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 23:01 on March 7th, 2007

Nice one! But we want more... what are your thoughts on this? Do you see this as just a Wikipedia problem, or a potential issue with Web 2.0 in general? Posting this here with us was a really good call, but a bit of commentary can make it even better.

Personally, I think that this incident is worth following because with so many people able to take part in developing live web content, not everyone is coming at it with the same goal in mind, so a human element is always needed to steer projects in the right direction. Some want to build something great, some want to advance their own agendas, some want ego gratification, some want to sell stuff, some just want to explore this vast new space that has grown out from the world that we've all lived in all along. Some just want to see what they can get away with.

There. My rant is done. Your story is now on the home page for awhile, and everywhere else the “good stuff” box shows up. Many thanks for your great work.

hayao

at 05:19 on March 8th, 2007

Yes Jordan, I agree with you that this story is worth following, considering how far-reaching the impact and influence of the online collaborative site, Wikipedia has to everyone of us. It is very important that everyone keeps a vigilant eye to how people are using the new media where eveything is possible.

hayao

at 05:35 on March 8th, 2007

What follows after this demise is that other Wikipedians, I believe, will be subjected to extensive background checking because without conducting an aggressive effort to clean its image it would be hard to put people's trust into it and believe its reputation as a legitimate and authentic source of information.