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C-SPAN Interviews Wikipedia Founder

Posted by Zonk on from the multi-dimensional-knowledge dept.

TrentL writes "Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales (aka Jimbo) was recently interviewed on C-SPAN's primetime program Q&A. Topics included the origins of Wikipedia, governing philosophy, and criticisms from members of the print encyclopedia community." From the article: "I had the idea basically from watching the growth of the free software movement. So all of the software that really runs the Internet, Linux, Apache, the Web serving software, it's all written by volunteers collaboratively working together using free licenses. And it's really good quality stuff."

5 of 160 comments (clear)

  1. Election Stuff by putko · · Score: 5, Interesting

    During the election, the bio on Kerry was full of lies. Perhaps it still it. It was like reading about Bizarro-Kerry, where everything bad was turned to good. I guess that's anti-Bizarro Kerry or something.

    Wikipedia is great for articles on technical or trivia, but there's too much incentive for people who have a strong interest in a certain story being told to go in there and muck it up, whatever the cost. Usually there are two sides, but one side will win - and that's what you see.

    E.g. I'm pretty sure that either the Zionists or anti-Zionists have filled up wikipedia with their viewpoint. One side has likely one and then twisted things freely.

    That is similar to the book reviews at Amazon: authors routinely attempt to manipulate their rankings -- e.g. ordering a bunch of books, then returning them. They have too much of a stake in doing it.

    If this guy could figure out some way to make Wikipedia correct on controversial issues (or at least not have blatant falsehoods), he'd do us all a lot of good. This would require some sort of motiviational/compensation system that I simply can't imagine, because the truth doesn't pay.

    --
    http://www.thebricktestament.com/the_law/when_to_s tone_your_children/dt21_18a.html
    1. Re:Election Stuff by commodoresloat · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Blatant falsehoods are usually spotted quickly and fixed, at least in my experience. I work on a lot of the political pages that get mucked with a lot. It is a pain though and it only works because so many editors devote so much time to keeping articles accurate. I tell students to use wikipedia as a resource rather than a "source" - I don't let them cite it in papers but I encourage them to use it as a resource for finding other sources of information and for finding out basic background info. There is no guarantee that an entry is correct at any given time, but by and large corrections are made quickly, and it is very often a useful starting place for doing research or finding answers to questions.

    2. Re:Election Stuff by hachete · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I like the current system that tags certain articles controversial. One way of insuring accountability is to ban easily obtained accounts, or having identity checked and then tracking the changes made. But then it wouldn't be wikipedia would.

      Even hard-copy publications like the Encylopaedia Britannica has bias.

      I don't believe there is such a thing as "the truth". Just doesn't exist. I think the best you can get is to identify the changer, mark articles which are controversial as controversial. Certainly sensitive articles like Kerry's or Bush's should be marked as such, possibly banning editing during sensitive times. These are fine-tuning issues. I think the basic model is sound, and based on a well-founded historical precedent.

      I regard the original large-edition OED as the ultimate volunteer-effort. In fact, I don't think the original could have been completed without volunteer effort. Compare and contrast the OED with simmilar projects in other countries i.e. Sweden which, as far as I am aware, use a more academic-type effort to try achieve a similar aim as the OED but with less success in that they're prover harder to complete with this methodology. Most of these projects are works in progress after a very long time.

      --
      Patriotism is a virtue of the vicious
    3. Re:Election Stuff by anthony_dipierro · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Blatant falsehoods are usually spotted quickly and fixed, at least in my experience.

      Depends where they are. I found a few physics pages about a year ago which were filled with references to the "POOP equation". The references had been there for months.

      I work on a lot of the political pages that get mucked with a lot.

      Those are usually the high trafficked pages, so yeah things get fixed more quickly, unless they're popular myths among Wikipedians. Try reading some of the pages on the GPL for instance. I go back every once in a while and fix it, but it's constantly filled with misnomers and propaganda.

      It is a pain though and it only works because so many editors devote so much time to keeping articles accurate.

      What's probably worse is that many of the long standing editors overcompensate and will delete many things that are indeed true thinking that they're not. I'm not sure what the sense is in letting anonymous users contribute if you're going to have 100 non-anonymous users each fact checking anything they contribute anyway. Might as well just force the anonymous users to leave a message and let one of the logged in users fix things themselves.

      There is no guarantee that an entry is correct at any given time, but by and large corrections are made quickly, and it is very often a useful starting place for doing research or finding answers to questions.

      I completely agree there. In fact, I think Wikipedia *usually* shines when it comes to current events and obscure subjects or subjects with multiple points of view. Of course, they kind of totally screwed up in their initial coverage of the Menezes murder, but the vast majority of the media did too.

  2. Wiki has changed the basic nature of truth itself by gelfling · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Since Wiki can be updated by whomever has the greatest degree of brute force, it has changed the very nature of what truth, and accuracy are. One can reshape 'truth' and remake it in just about any image one desires. If for example one wanted to delegitimize evolution or uplift suicide bombing as a noble endevor one would be free to rewrite history as one saw fit. And the idea that there are even competing points of view would be driven by the sheer signal to noise ratio those competing points of view could drive through the Wiki system. Wiki is the perfect embodiment of our post modern view of the world where everything is everything, all values, ideas and beliefs are equally fair and might makes right.