Sunday, January 25, 2009

Wikipedia raises warning flag

After the latest high-profile cases of wiki-editing abuse, "Wikipedia May Restrict Public’s Ability to Change Entries," the Times says.

The user-edited encyclopedia has tightened things up in the past, notably after what it called the Seigenthaler incident.

Coincidentally, the names of John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy came up that time; this time their younger brother is involved:

Kennedy, Byrd the Latest Victims of Wikipedia Errors

(If you want to keep watch for further abuse, or check the "history" of Senator Kennedy's page, here it is: Senator Kennedy's Wikipedia page)

For a demo of how drastically a Wikipedia page can change over time, see Jon Udell's webcast analysis of the Heavy Metal Umlaut page -- and here's the current metal umlaut page, which has lost the word "heavy" over the years.

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