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In praise of ... the Wikipedia



Leader
Thursday December 8, 2005
The Guardian


The Wikipedia is one of the wonders of the internet. It is an online encyclopedia written by its readers with a claimed 2.5 bn page views a month. It is far bigger than rivals such as the Encyclopedia Britannica. Until recently anyone could alter almost any entry in Wikipedia.com without even revealing who they were.

In theory it was a recipe for disaster, but for most of the time it worked remarkably well, reflecting the essential goodness of human nature in a supposedly cynical world and fulfiling a latent desire for people all over the world to cooperate with each other without payment. The wikipedia is now a standard source of reference for millions of people including school children doing their homework and post-graduates doing research. Inevitably, in an experiment on this scale lots of entries have turned out to be wrong, mostly without mal-intent.



It is true of the Wikipedia, as it is of the rest of the internet, that information should not be regarded as sacrosanct. Everything should be double checked. In recent weeks the Wikipedia has been the victim of malevolent and anonymous changes, including character assassinations. As a result the Wiki godfathers are tightening up their rules by introducing registration so fingerprints can be traced. It is sad this has to be done because of vandalism by the few. But the wiki movement ought to emerge even stronger. Those who think its entries should be taken with a pinch of salt should never forget that there is still plenty of gold dust there.




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