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Last night Seattle Times posted an article on Wikipedia prankster confesses. It was picked up by Google and caught my attention when scanning the news.

It’s a story about Brian Chase from Nashville, Tenn. who put false information about John Seigenthaler Sr. in a Wikipedia entry. Wikipedia has its own entry on the controversy.

In short, the false entry was made in May, taken off in September. Unable to track down the person responsible, Mr. Seigenthaler wrote about the issue in an article on USA Today on November 29th. By December 11, 2005 Mr. Chase admitted he was responsible.

It’s not the first time misleading information has been found on Wikipedia. In November, Norwegian newspapers reported that, Jens Stoltenberg, Prime Minister of Norway, was descibed as as a pedofile on the Norwegian version of Wikipedia.

In response to the Seigenthaler incident Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales instituted a new policy preventing unregistered users from creating new articles on the English Wikipedia.

On December 7th I wrote about trusting what you find on the Internet. Wikipedia is probably of the more trustworthy sources and this underlines the importance of “User Beware”. There are many blogs, forums and websites out there where misinformation is spread on a regular basis.

I wrote that products like Sxore may be a part of the solution. I support Wikipedia’s new policy and hope that others will follow. While most of us still want free speech we also want some kind of accountability.

The bottom line? As a user - always double-check your sources! As a publisher - demand accountability from your editors or risk loosing accountability as a service.

roar at roarweb dot com