Via Glenn Fleishman, here is the Wikipedia Talk page for Danah Boyd, which I will henceforth use as an example of all that’s right and wrong with Wikipedia.

Yes, Wikipedia should take the money

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17wiki.190-1.jpgOver at Techdirt, Tim Lee takes issue with my post suggesting that Wikipedia should consider selling ads instead of asking for donations. He has a good point, which is that right now the only reason to volunteer to work for Wikipedia is because you’re passionate about it, but that might change if money became involved. But I think Tim overstates his case:

Being a member of the Wikipedia board would no longer be a thankless exercise in public service, but would be a relatively glamorous opportunity to direct hundreds of thousands of dollars to one’s pet causes. Over time, the senior leadership positions would be sought out by people who are more excited about doling out largesse than editing an encyclopedia.

I’m not sure why that would be the case. By that rationale we could never have large philanthropic foundations because they would attract self-interested directors. As long as their actions are transparent and they are accountable to the wikipedians, I don’t see why the money couldn’t be directed for the benefit of Wikipedia. And if the directors enjoy some vicarious “glamour” as a result, then I think that’s a fine reward for hard work—it might even attract better candidates than are interested today.

Since it’s Sunshine Week I’ll stress that the key is transparency. And Tim is right on this point, too: institutions matter. Right now Jimmy Wales is taking some heat for conducting his Wikipedia business in a less than transparent manner. If that’s how Wkipedia is going to operate, them perhaps money will corrupt it and Tim is right that “there’s no reason to think an institution built to edit an encyclopedia is going to have any special competence to oversee the spending of millions of dollars.” Still, I guess I’m just more optimistic about what the Wikipedia community is capable of.

Mar 17, 2008 | Comment | Tags: , ,

Wikipedia’s tin-cup approach wears thin

Spurred by the recent buzz around Jimmy Wales’s ethics, The L.A. Times has a good piece asking, Why doesn’t Wikipedia just sell ads? That would solve the site’s perennial money woes. (The story mentions the incredibly creepy fundraising video I blogged about last year.) By refusing to seek any serious income aside from donations Wikipedia is tying one hand behind its back.

The idea that monetizing their traffic would somehow corrupt the snow-white purity of the Wikipedia experiment is bogus. As long as the ads are placed by computer, there isn’t a problem. The story doesn’t mention them, but the Wikimedia Foundation should seek inspiration in the Mozilla Foundation and Craigslist, two non-profits that are making gobs of money without losing their altruistic visions.

Mar 12, 2008 | 1 Comment | Tags: , ,

I like Jimmy Wales and love Wikipedia, but in this new promotional video he looks like such a toolshed. What’s up with the freaky close-ups of his eyes and the hand-wringing?

Wikipedia, courts, and anonymity

Wikipedia has been cited in more than 100 judicial opinions since 2004, including 13 from federal circuit courts of appeal, according to the NYT. The article implies this is a trend:

A simple search of published court decisions shows that Wikipedia is frequently cited by judges around the country, involving serious issues and the bizarre — such as a 2005 tax case before the Tennessee Court of Appeals concerning the definition of “beverage” that involved hundreds of thousands of dollars, and, just this week, a case in Federal District Court in Florida that involved the term “booty music” as played during a wet T-shirt contest.

The article then cites pro and con takes. Judge Posner has cited Wikipedia in at least one opinion, and thinks it’s O.K. as long as it’s not used to support a central fact in the case. That’s a completely reasonable stance and Cass Sunstein seems to agree with Posner even though he’s more skeptical of the practice.

I’m not sure this is a trend at all. The NYT was able to find 100 instances of citation to Wikipedia from all courts, including district courts and special masters. But consider that the federal appeals courts (excluding the Fed. Circuit and the Supreme Court) published 29,913 opinions in the 12 month period ending Sep. 2005.

I think Wikipedia is a great resource and it’s the starting point for lots of my own research, but I think that’s how self-respecting judges and scholars will use it, as a staring point. It’s not that the information on Wikipedia is necessarilly inferior. It’s not. In my view the problem is that it’s anonymous. If you rely on a book or an article for a fact, you know who to hold accountable if the fact turns out to be erroneous–the author. An author has a track record and a reputation. This is something you can scrutinize, and something the author has an incentive to protect. This is doubled when an article is peer-reviewed, and tripled when you consider publications also have reputations to uphold.

I understand Wikipedia has a bias toward correcting errors, but fairly or unfairly its reputation is inscrutable. Sure, it may have a 99% accuracy rate today, but what about tomorrow? Wikipedia is great to link to in a blog post, but in more serious published writing, a writer will also be concerned about his own reputation. Getting context from Wikipedia is very helpful, but when it comes to citation I’ll take the extra time and find another source to cite to. This is why I love that Wikipedia has begun to include its own footnoted citations for the sources of the information included in its articles. (Hat tip Joe A. for the link.)

Jan 29, 2007 | Comments Off | Tags: , , ,

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