Dynamist Blog

Wiki Wars

The Wikipedia is a free, online encyclopedia created by volunteer contributors. Its open-source model taps the dispersed knowledge of many different people. But what happens when contributors vehemently disagree on the facts? Red Herring reports on the pre-election Wiki wars:

Disputes over content related to Mr. Bush and Mr. Kerry have been growing since August, prompting the popular reference site's administrators to warn users last month that election-related entries may be the focus of "contention and debate," possibly diminishing their neutrality.

Wikis like Wikipedia are web sites that encourage users to share information by allowing them to freely write and edit content.

Wikipedia community members held an online town hall meeting last month to try to solve the disputes over the entries, to no avail. Meanwhile, Wikipedia's administrators are periodically "freezing" contentious pages--locking out any edits for brief periods of time. Since May, Wikipedia's Mr. Kerry entry has been frozen at least seven times, while its Mr. Bush page has been locked down almost as often.

Indeed, entries for Mr. Bush and Mr. Kerry have become the most contentious in the history of Wikipedia, said Wikipedia creator Jimmy Wales, president of the Wikipedia Foundation, which is based in St. Petersburg, Florida. Mr. Bush and Mr. Kerry have created even more debate than entries for sex and religion. As of October 8, Wikipedia's President Bush entry had been tweaked 3,953 times. Its entry for Senator Kerry had been modified 3,230 times. By contrast, Wikipedia's article on Jesus has only been edited 1,855 times since the site's inception in 2001.

The whole article is here and includes an interesting chart of contentious Wikipedia entries.

I'm working on an article (not election-related) on the Wikipedia as a model of social organization. If you've got thoughts on the subject, or relevant experiences, please drop me a line.

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