Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, has been plunged into controversy after one of its most prolific contributors and editors, a professor with degrees in theology and canon law, was exposed as a 24-year-old college dropout.
The editor, who called himself Essjay, was recruited by staff at Wikipedia to work on the site’s arbitration committee, a team of expert administrators charged with vetting content on the “free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.”
But no one apparently vetted the credentials of Essjay, who claimed to be a professor of religion at a private university and contributed to an estimated 20,000 Wikipedia entries.
Essjay was Ryan Jordan, a 24-year-old from Kentucky with no advanced degrees who used texts such as “Catholicism for Dummies” to help him correct articles on the penitential rite or transubstantiation.
RELATED NEWS AND “HOW TO” GUIDES:
“P2P Lawsuits”and “P2P Extortion,” the 2007 yin and yang of the file-sharing debate
Bram Cohen of BitTorrent ranked 3rd most important person on the web
Junk Nova – Cool BitTorrent download site of the day
3 Quick Ways to Watch Movies for FREE!
3 quick ways to watch TV shows for FREE
PUBLIC vs PRIVATE – BitTorrent download sites explored
BitTorrent torrent sites & search engines
Azureus – A Beginner’s Guide to BitTorrent Downloading
uTorrent – A Beginner’s guide to BitTorrent downloading
Watch The Simpsons, The Office, Jackass, South Park, Lost, X-Men, and More On-Demand For Free
SOULXTC: “walkin’ the streets of P2P”
Related Posts
- Chinese Government Relaxes Its Total Ban on Wikipedia
- Jack In The Box: BitTorrent-Enabled Network Storage Guaranteed To Spook RIAA
- Wikipedia: “If we had 10 million bucks to buy copyrights what should we buy?”
- People will always download movies and music – here’s how to address it
- Sony in talks for commercial use of PS3
Loading ...
The fact that he has no degrees doesn’t negate the work that he did in compling parts of the encyclopedia. If the information he contriubuted was factual and independantly verifiable then the work speaks for itself.
If people did not put so much emphasis on having a piece of paper to establish being capable of certain endeavors this would not be an issue. Example: Dr Lara S. has a Ph.D in physiology yet gives advice on inter-personal relationships. The point being just because she understands bio-mechanics does not qualify her to tell a person how to deal with psychological and social problems. Yet she piggy backs the title “doctor” onto her vocation of giving her opinions as professional theraputic advice.
I am not saying I agree with how he handled the situation. I am saying I understand why he did what he did and that the greater issue of attempting invalidate perfectly good work for an outdated social convention in my opinion.