Monday, November 19, 2007
Wiki Identity
I read, "A Contributor to Wikipedia Has His Fictional Side", by Noam Cohen. The article was about a man who contributed to Wikipedia under a different name but also pretended to be someone that he wasn't. He was used the name "Essjay" and he said he was "a professor of religion at a private university with expertise in canon law". This made him seem more credible than other people who may edit wikipedia entries. The problem people had was that he was not really a professor but a 24 year old named Ryan Jordan.
For the most part, I don't think that he did anything wrong because that is how a lot of internet sites are run. People make up alias and use them in certain situations. I do think that he crossed the line by saying that he was a professor. There was no reason why he couldn't just be himself and make the same intelligent entries that he made. Another mistake that he made was getting a job based on the lie or alias. But he was given the job and therefore that is also the mistake of wikipedia.
Labels: Wikipedia
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An interesting issue. Clearly he did something wrong according to wikipedia and its readers. A trust was broken. Is that trust a problem for Wikipedia? Does Wikipedia rely too much on anonymous authors? Should everyone have to verify their identity? What would happen if identities were checked? The honor system is crucial to the success of Wikipedia, but I am sure that the editors do a lot of googling when it comes to regular authors.
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