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Date: January 21, 2008
Article: “Info at your fingertips, a lot of it probably true” by Perry Swanson
Springs on Wikipedia Info at Your Fingertips, a Lot of It Probably True Net users can change things, and there’s no final authority By Perry Swanson the Gazette
The entry about Colorado Springs in Encyclopaedia Britannica offers a 377-word snapshot of the city, noting its founding in 1871, its population as of eight years ago and other trivia.
How old school can you get?
For volunteer editors of the popular online encyclopedia Wikipedia, that at-a-glance view isn’t nearly enough. On Wikipedia, the city’s entry — written by anyone with an interest in Colorado Springs — spans 7,140 words and includes history, demographics, transportation, sports, economy, religion and 18 footnotes.
At least that’s what the Wikipedia article looked like Friday morning. At any moment, any Internet user could change the whole thing, adding facts and context or throwing up false information and innuendo.
It’s the nature of Wikipedia, which covers many more subjects in much greater depth than traditional sources, all subject to standards that volunteer editors set for themselves. Critics say that’s why it’s unreliable, compared with traditional sources that are created and carefully vetted by experts.
If Wikipedia reports its own story correctly, the site was started in 2001 and is among the 10 most-visited worldwide. The English version has more than 2 million articles.
Wikipedia contains dozens of articles about people, places and issues in the Pikes Peak region. Lots of them were started or edited by people with local connections, and some by people writing from far away. Editors update some articles in nearly real time to reflect developments, such as the fatal shooting at New Life Church on Dec. 9 or state Rep. Douglas Bruce’s kicking of a news photographer Jan. 14.
Wikipedia contributors often pick up where the last writer left off.
“Lots of times, I’m skimming through and I see grammar errors or spelling errors,” said Cameron Kimpson, an 11-year-old Denver-area resident. “I’m a really good writer, so I can spot mistakes easily. I have a pretty good eye for that kind of stuff.”
Cameron started Wikipedia’s article on Colorado Highway 94 and has contributed to other articles about dogs.
Another frequent writer and editor on local subjects is Seth Anthony, a chemistry student at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. Anthony said he writes a lot about Colorado political issues to get acquainted with the scene.
“This is why teachers assign research papers,” he said. “Researching and writing about something is a great way to learn about it.”
Putting personal research on Wikipedia is a way to share the knowledge with everyone who visits the page, Anthony said.
Anthony played a big role in developing the article on Bruce, a politician not featured in traditional encyclopedias. The article discusses Bruce’s political activism, property investments and his biggest splash in Colorado: writing the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights.
Some Wikipedia contributors actively enforce the Web page’s “neutral point of view” policy, which calls for articles to explain controversial subjects without taking a position. Tuesday, a user changed the Bruce article to include the poorly spelled sentence: “Doug Bruce is a douch bag!” The attack stayed on the page for 23 minutes, when another user removed it.
Wikipedia users can set their accounts to issue alerts when someone changes pages that interest them. With personal attacks or patently false information, the article is usually reverted to a previous version. But it’s up to the users — there’s no administrator to prevent abuse.
Maintaining neutrality is sometimes tough, Anthony said, citing the Bruce article, which does not cover Bruce’s famous — or infamous — personality traits.
“People have called him acerbic and ill-tempered,” Anthony said. “That’s fine if it’s one person’s description, but how do you write about that from a neutral point of view and an objective standpoint?”
Anthony said he spends between five and 10 hours each week working on Wikipedia.
“I try not to spend too much time. I’m in graduate school, after all,” he said.
Time is less of a consideration for Colorado Springs resident Chris Fitch, who takes a self-effacing attitude toward his enthusiasm for Wikipedia. Fitch started the article on former Mayor Bob Isaac and has contributed to other articles on subjects from District 11 schools to Japanese history.
Being featured in a news article about Wikipedia “will cause no end of humor among my work friends, who call the ’pedia my ‘real job,’ as I am editing every lunch break,” Fitch wrote in an e-mail last month. “As of tonight, I am at 51,778 edits, which makes me a big nerd.”
Creating articles for Wikipedia has sharpened Fitch’s research skills, he said. Properly citing sources is a skill many people leave behind after college, but users on Wikipedia have to cite sources or they risk blowback from other users.
“Now it’s reflex, it's defense mechanism,” Fitch said.
But are the articles factual? It’s a question you could ask of any encyclopedia. Wikipedia critics cringe at the site’s format allowing anyone — professional or amateur — to change an article or start a new one. Some articles are “vandalized” with intentionally false information. Some college professors and newspapers, including The Gazette, forbid it to be used as a primary source.
The satirical newspaper The Onion weighed in on the debate in July 2006 with a story headlined: “Wikipedia celebrates 750 years of American independence.”
It could happen, but it would likely attract the attention of other Wikipedia editors.
“A good 40 percent of the consistent, veteran editors’ time is cleaning up other people’s messes,” Fitch said.
Contact the Writer: 636-0187 or perry.swanson@gazette.com
[edit] Just how useful is Wikipedia?
