[Air-l] wikipedia becomes a reference in French presidential elections

[Frank Thomas]

In France we are now J-2 to the final round of the presidential 
elections. On 2 May a debate on TV during prime time between the two 
last candidates, Segolène Royal and Nicolas Sarkozy, draw more than 20 
million spectators out of 64 million inhabitants. One of the 
controversial issues was about nuclear energy, with a fight whether the 
European Pressurized Reactor //was considered 3rd or 4th generation. The 
interest of this fight was to show that one of the candidates was not up 
to date when it comes to technology and research.
According to French radio the reaction of the wikipedia scene was 
instant: in the next couple of hours the article was changed 50 times. I 
don't see some 50 changes but the citation war starts at 2nd May, 22h34, 
just during the TV show. 
http://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=R%C3%A9acteur_pressuris%C3%A9_europ%C3%A9en&offset=20070502204031&action=history
Now the article on the EPR has been partially protected: 
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%A9acteur_pressuris%C3%A9_europ%C3%A9en

I doubt that changing the content in the authoritative Internet 
encyclopedia will change the course of French history, but at least it 
shows the perceived impact of wikipedia on the public opinion of French 
Internet users.

- Frank Thomas

-- 
..........................................
Dr. Frank Thomas
FTR Internet Research
93110 Rosny-sous-Bois
France