The The GoodGood

The BadThe Bad

The UglyThe Ugly

Garbage InGarbage Out

Quantity VS.

Quality

Collateral MisinformationCollateral Misinformation

“Truth Can You Handle It?” by Monica Hesse, Washington Post April 27, 2008

From UrbanDictionary.comFrom UrbanDictionary.com

1.       collateral misinformation                1486 up, 259 down               

When someone alters a Wikipedia article to win a specific argument, anyone who reads the false article before the "error" is corrected suffers from collateral misinformation.

I changed the scientific classification of red foxes last night in order to win an argument with Judy. I hope some stupid High School student didn't suffer from collateral misinformation.

tags wikipedia misinformation collateral damage deception high schoolby wildefox Calgary Mar 5, 2008 email it

ExperimentExperiment• Of 100 history terms entered into a Google

search….how many had Wikipedia articles as the first hit????

• Wikiality: “a reality where, if enough people agree with a notion, it must be true.” – Stephen Colbert

WikipediaWikipedia• What do we

know????

What Happens?What Happens?From The Times (UK) 3/28/08

“WEST YORKSHIRE Police mounted a surveillance operation on the internet encyclopaedia Wikipedia after its biography of their chief constable was altered more than 100 times in the past month (Sean O'Neill writes).”

“A game of online ping-pong ensued; there were 26 revisions on February 15 alone. Wikipedia intervened earlier this week to "lock down" the page, preventing further editing. “

There’s More!There’s More!Baseball Historian Spots Fraud

Report on death of lefty relief pitcher for the Sox, Bill Henry at the age of 83…..

Incorrect!

Tampa Tribune (Fl) 9/27/2007

John SeigenthalerJohn Seigenthaler

• Administrative assistant to Robert Kennedy in the mid 1960’s

• Falsely accused of being involved in Kennedy’s assassination (Jack and Bobby)

• Error remained on Wikipedia for 6 months• When Seigenthaler asked Wikipedia who wrote the

article, they did not know!• When questioned by Seigenthaler, Wikipedia, stated

that their computers are programmed to copy data verbatim, never checking whether it is false or factual.

Is the Editor Real?Is the Editor Real?• Touted himself as a tenured professor with

doctorate in theology and canon law• Who was he really?• 24-year-old community college dropout

“Wikipedia editor who posed as professor is Ky. Dropout”, The Courier Journal, March 26, 2007

What About Google?What About Google?

Anybody can put anything on the Internet!