Tech & Biz

Wikipedia Ponders Editorial Reviews After Kennedy Death Post

by Tina Kells | January 26, 2009 at 12:32 pm

293 views | 30 Recommendations | 5 comments

When Senators Ted Kennedy and Robert Byrd collapsed at President Obama's inauguration lunch the internet lit up with people looking for updated news of their health. Wikipedia, a trusted user-generated encyclopedia that works on the honor system regarding the truth of postings, was the first to post the news that both Senators had died. These posts were totally false.

The exagerated reports of Senator Kennedy's and Senator Byrd's deaths have caused Wikipedia to re-evaluate its editorial practices. Word around the web is that Wikipedia editorial staff is considering adopting an approval system that would have revisions eyeballed by real people before being published. The proposed screening process has sparked fierce debate among Wikipedia's editors and its founder, Jimmy Wales.

Wikipedia's founder, Jimmy Wales, is proposing a system of flagged revisions, which would mean any changes made by a new or unknown user would have to be approved by one of the site's editors, before the changes were published.
This would mean a radical shift from the site's philosophy that ostensibly allows anyone to make changes to almost any entry.

In a blog entry, Mr Wales said the "nonsense" of the false reports would have been "100% prevented by Flagged Revision" and said he wanted the changes to be implemented as soon as possible.

"To the Wikimedia Foundation: per the poll of the English Wikipedia community and upon my personal recommendation, please turn on the Flagged Revisions feature as approved in the poll," he said in a statement.

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yuls.source

at 12:37 on January 26th, 2009

Interesting. I always thought Wikipedia could use some editing once in a while.

Paschen

at 13:51 on January 26th, 2009

I would review them as well. This will cost them some feathers in credibility.

gary_z_ro

at 20:35 on January 26th, 2009

I took this picture from the lawn of the Capitol Building on inauguration day, Jan 20. We weren't too thrilled with Kennedy's hat, but we were happy to see he was well enough to attend this historical event. Later that day, while we were waiting for the Obama motorcade to pass us on Connecticut Ave., we heard a rumor that both Kennedy and Byrd collapsed at the presidential luncheon. We confirmed this on Yahoo! via our iPhones. Kennedy ended up being the only one who had a medical emergency.

gary_z_ro has contributed a photo to this story.

Paloma

at 05:21 on January 27th, 2009

Really, this is not a picture, is a video, an interview:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/palomabaytelman/3192263309/

Paloma has contributed a photo to this story.

arunpattnaik

at 07:18 on January 27th, 2009

Took this photo when he was in India for promoting Wikia. Amazing personality, his presentation kept me hooked for hours!

arunpattnaik has contributed a photo to this story.