According to the reliable web aggregator techmeme, the latest talk in the tech blogosphere has to do with Wiki Scanner, a tool that allows to trace the origins of entries edits and corrections to wikipedia entries. The tool does not make it possible to trace the individual authors, but the owners of the networks from which the edit originated.
And, (surprise!) many companies "correct" entries that are not to their liking. Pepsi, for instance (see the NYT article here) removed mentions to negative health effects of its soda. Corporations are not the only ones, however, to write about themselves. Among others, the CIA changed entries related to its activities, as well as the Vatican.
What surprises me is that everyone seems surprised by this. The openness of wikipedia makes it vulnerable to conflicts of interest. We may regret it, but at the very source of the dynamics of collective action on wikipedia is the fact that the most likely to write about a topic are the ones who are the most involved in it...
Funny, by the way, how this piece of news comes right after the whole debate about Google's initiative to have people involved in the news comment on it.
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Elusive information ownership
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"The openness of wikipedia makes it vulnerable to conflicts of interest. We may regret it, but at the very source of the dynamics of collective action on wikipedia is the fact that the most likely to write about a topic are the ones who are the most involved in it..."
Wow, then we should be happy that the same does not hold true for any kind of writing about a topic, especially not for research ;)
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