pcplantdb

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lfl@intrex.net>]

<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4502846.stm>

        
Last Updated: Tuesday, 6 December 2005, 11:47 GMT
E-mail this to a friend         Printable version
Wikipedia tightens online rules
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales
Wikipedia founder hopes to improve the quality of entries
Online encyclopaedia Wikipedia has tightened its submission rules following a 
complaint.

Prominent journalist John Siegenthaler described as "false and malicious" an entry on Wikipedia implicating him in the 
Kennedy assassinations.

When he phoned Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia's founder, he was told there was no way 
of finding out who wrote the entry.

Wikipedia has since removed the entry and now requires users to register 
before they can create articles.

But visitors to the site will still be able to edit content already posted 
without having to register.

The case has highlighted once again the problem of publishing information 
online.

'Impulse vandalism'

Unlike content published in magazines, books or newspapers, online 
information can be posted anonymously by anyone.

        
The marketplace of ideas ultimately will take care of the problem but in the 
meantime, what happens to people like me?
John Siegenthaler
Wikipedia has thrived on offering people the chance to contribute to a 
collective knowledge bank.

Since its launch in 2001, Wikipedia has gathered together some 850,000 articles in English as well as entries in at 
least eight other languages on a wide range of topics.

Based on wikis, open-source software which lets anyone fiddle with a webpage, anyone reading a subject entry can 
disagree, edit, add, delete, or replace the entry.

It relies on volunteers, many of whom are experts in a particular field, to 
edit previously submitted articles.

Mr Wales acknowledged that the new procedures would not prevent people from posting false information but said he hoped 
it would limit the number of new articles being created.

This, in turn, should make it easier for the 600 volunteers to edit content, 
he said.

"In many cases the types of things we see going on are impulse vandalism," he 
said.

In an opinion piece for the USA Today, where Mr Siegenthaler was the founding editorial director, the 78-year-old 
journalist claimed that only one sentence in his Wikipedia biography was correct - the fact that he was Robert Kennedy's 
administrative assistant in the early 1960s.

He went on to describe Wikipedia as a "flawed and irresponsible research 
tool".

"The marketplace of ideas ultimately will take care of the problem but in the meantime, what happens to people like me?" 
he asked.