[Air-l] Wikipedia weakness

[Michael Zimmer]

I don't see this as a fundamental flaw with Wikipedia's structure -  
faked credentials (and improper vetting of them) can plague almost  
any organization or community:

* Michael Brown at FEMA: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/ 
0,8599,1103003,00.html
* George O'Leary (football coach): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ 
George_O%27Leary#Notre_Dame_Controversy
* "Security consultant" posing as Fed Agent to stalk "Brangelina":  
http://www.tmz.com/2006/09/14/fake-fed-wanted-to-get-near-brangelina/

And, of course, it was the New Yorker (who has greater resources for  
fact-checking) who got fooled here just as much as the Wikipedia  
community....

-mz


-----
Michael T. Zimmer
  Doctoral Candidate, Culture and Communication, New York University
  Student Fellow, Information Law Institute, NYU Law School
e: michael.zimmer at nyu.edu
w: http://michaelzimmer.org



On Mar 8, 2007, at 3:20 PM, Homero Gil de Zuniga wrote:

>
>
> Once again Wikipedia raises controversy by the weakness of its very
> structure. Although I guess that it is the same structure that  
> makes it an
> attractive global encyclopedia.
>
> HGZ
>
>
>
> BBC:
>
> Fake professor in Wikipedia storm
>
> Internet site Wikipedia has been hit by controversy after the  
> disclosure
> that a prominent editor had assumed a false identity complete with  
> fake PhD.
>
>
>
> Complete article:
>
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6423659.stm
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> The air-l at listserv.aoir.org mailing list
> is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org
> Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http:// 
> listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
>
> Join the Association of Internet Researchers:
> http://www.aoir.org/