Image from: republicoft.com
Is this the End of the Wiki Dream? Wikpedia’s big changes leave SkyNews and others pondering the site’s future.
This wake-up call swirls around this week’s news that Internet encyclopedia giant Wikipedia will use editors to approve updates about living people to the site’s English language pages. Some critics argue this is a dramatic shift away from Wikipedia’s main principal of allowing anyone to change any entry.
David Gerard, an editor for the site ,told the BBC this change won’t change much.
Anchor: But it changes the whole idea of what Wikipedia is about?
David: Not really. We’ve often had to lock down articles from editing because there’s people being stupid or obnoxious or whatever.
The Daily Finance gives this perspective: “In a nutshell, this announcement affirms the limitation of serious user generated content on the Web and reaffirms the necessity for professional or dedicated curators.”
Kevin Anderson, a technology correspondent for the Guardian told the BBC from his perspective, Wikipedia was never totally user-controlled in the first place.
I think the idea of a free-for-all was always kind of exaggerated in the press.
And Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales talked to CNN via Skype about the future of the encyclopedia and said he is still focused on the site’s users.
Anchor: What do you envision for Wikipedia, say 5 or 10 years down the road?
Jimmy: Well I think the main English Wikipedia will look very similar to how it does now. We’ve got a lot of usability initiatives to try to make it easier for people to participate; it’s still a little too geeky in a lot of ways.
So, do you think Wikipedia has abandoned its principals or were editors necessary as the site grows?
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