Wikipedia in the Spotlight

The item in today's news that I would like to talk about is featured on the BBC World Service.

In an age of blogging, online reference sources, and countless internet news sources, the world wide web is becoming an increasingly important medium for sharing opinions and shaping the thoughts of the general public, and apparently our federal representatives agree.

Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia that allows visitors to edit or add entries, is reporting that vandalism and embellishment of biographies of United States Congressmen are being traced to Capitol Hill computers. It turns out our reps are fine tuning their own entries while ridiculing their political adversaries on an encyclopedia that should be used as a public resource. Read the full article from the BBC here.

Now here are a couple points to chew on...

I realize that this year is an election year and all of the House and a third of the Senate seats will be up for grabs. Elected officials will do anything they can to defend their office, competition is part of the distraction of serving the public in any competitive liberal democracy. But does anybody really think Wikipedia references are going to make the difference in these elections? In a country that is so incredible divisive, political affiliation and name recogntion and association will mean far more than anything written in an online encyclopedia. Maybe they should put more effort into getting things done, like figuring out how to keep from cutting over a hundred programs in this year's federal budget without further drowning the nation in debt.

And, the internet is the world's most accessible medium for free speech. It should not be censored, if even in completely legal ways like altering the validity of entries in an online encyclopedia.