Robert Hampton

It seems as though Wikipedia is being mentioned in the media a lot recently; unfortunately a lot of the publicity has been negative.

The Register has had the knives out for Wikipedia for quite a while now. More recently, The Onion hit the nail on the head with a great article on the subject.

On his US talk show Monday night, Stephen Colbert waxed lyrical on the concept of Wikiality — the idea that a false statement will become accepted as truth if it’s placed on a Wiki — and the Wikipedia entry on Elephants has been under siege ever since.

It’s quite amusing really. I like Wikipedia — I have even contributed a couple of edits — but surely the site’s founders recognised that an “encyclopedia” that is editable anonymously by anyone is a disaster waiting to happen.