July 3, 2007
The Young Minds Behind Wikipedia
Professors can — and will — debate whether Wikipedia is waging war against expertise or simply giving folks outside of academe a chance to speak. But one thing about the site is inarguable: It has emboldened a generation of surprisingly young encyclopedists.
The New York Times profiles a few such scribes, including Matthew Gruen, a Wikipedia writer who earned rave reviews for shaping an article about the arrest of six men who allegedly planned to attack Fort Dix. Mr. Gruen, who is known to other Wikipedians as “Gracenotes,” is a dedicated and scrupulous contributor to the Web site. And he is 16 years old:
[H]e will often, after his homework is done and his church responsibilities are fulfilled, spend six hours or more a night cleaning up errors in the encyclopedia. An amateur programmer and calculus buff who lives near Poughkeepsie, N.Y., he became seriously involved with Wikipedia just about eight months ago, after his parents ordered him out of a different online community of which they did not approve.
Critics of Wikipedia may take Gracenote’s age as evidence that the site’s contributors are not to be trusted. But professors would do well to harness the passion that students like Mr. Gruen have for the encyclopedia. —Brock Read
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I like this article. There are many very well educated students (such as myself) who edit Wikipedia. Users are judged by their edits, not their age. This can be very nice. I know one Wikipedia named Daniel who is very good friends with another Wikipedian. His friend realized that he was old enough to be Dan’s grandfather, but they are still good friends. They remain good friends because users are judged on maturity, not age.
— Mark S. Jul 3, 09:39 PM #
Wkjipedia is terrific, and it has info on everything.
it may not be 100% accurrate, but nothing is , its all up to interpretation, and opinion.
The internet needs FREE information, thats what makes it great, and it needs info on EVERYTHING, brittanica has no entries for things everyday people want info about, and they want to charge me for it.
— Johnny Miller Jul 4, 01:47 PM #
“Up to 9 months ago we financially contributed funds to Wikipedia but no more, for we thought that it was a good idea and where its thinking was in unison with our own at that time – using knowledge for the good of humankind. When we as novices tried to place our Swiss charity within Wikipedia we were absolutely savaged by the editors. They in fact blocked our right of reply, which is documented by themselves. Thereafter we even sent our registration documents via email to the then executive director of Wikimedia, the holding organization, to prove that our international group was registered as a Swiss charity. He did nothing at all. A few months later he resigned with another top Wikimedia executive, ‘Jimbo’s second in command. The greatest problem with Wikipedia that we now find is that they are highly selective in who should place information and where therefore they will never really have a web-based encyclopedia that is unbiased and totally factual. It is ultimately at the whims of the few enlightened ones who control what should be a great reference. Unfortunately we now see that it is not.
For anyone interested further on how Wikipedia editors work, the full account including all emails will be part of our next web newsletter ‘Scientific Discovery’. It will be on-line by the end of July 2007. Overall, it is time we feel that Wikipedia looked internally at itself and that they concluded that they have major problems with the way they treat new entrants. This analysis should especially be directed towards the attitude of their editors, who remove the right of reply and delete super-quick for reasons not based on evidence but only hearsay. By the way also, the Wikipedian Editor Zoe who first blocked us and the initial instigator of all the basic trouble, fell out with ‘Jimbo’ and where she as well left a few months later. Apparently she had made a vendetta against a certain professor according to ‘Jimbo’s’ opinion. Thereafter she took her bat and ball home and has never been seen since. I believe she also threatened the embattled professor at the time.” Dr. David Hill Chief Executive World Innovation Foundation Charity (reg. no. CH-035.7.035.277-9 – 11th July 2005) Bern, Switzerland— david hill Jul 4, 05:01 PM #
Regarding the above post by Dr. Hill, the relevant Wikipedia discussion that decided on deletion is at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/World_Innovation_Foundation
— Anonymous coward Jul 4, 11:25 PM #
What a crank!
— Jack Jul 5, 02:23 AM #
Professors would do well to harness the enthusiasm indeed. It is currently hitched to a wagon careening at gallop speed down the road of abuse. Media and academics are looking at the content of wikipedia, and not the process whereby the content is produced. An examination of the name-calling, arbitrary rule bending, political tag-teaming, widespread gaming of rules and lack of any formal process for oversight of content while a quasi-judicial process constantly selects who will contribute based on “behavior” reveals this project to be a more abusive environment than even the most dangerous high schools.
— Ben Jul 5, 12:15 PM #
Note to Johnny: check your college’s/university’s library website—Britannica or other reliable encyclopedias may be available to you there at no cost. Also, you used several contractions in your post which require a apostrophe before the “s”.
— Kathy Jul 9, 05:57 PM #
Note to Kathy: Is the plural of encylopedia really encyclopedias? I’m sure linguists might argue?
— Tim Jul 13, 05:08 PM #
Dear Anonymous coward,
Why not also give the link to the other side of the story so that you get the balanced view. It is at www.thewif.org.uk and then click on the Wikipedia article. You probably will not as you may only wish to publicize the one sided view and leave it at that. But I hope all other intelligent beings will use a balnced judgement and visit our site before they fully make their minds up and judge the account on its merits only.
Dr. David Hill
World Innovation Foundation Charity, Bern, Switzerland
— Dr David Hill Aug 8, 07:44 PM #