Canadian government sources make questionable Wikipedia edits
The Globe and Mail has an article entitled Is Wikipedia becoming a hub for propaganda? Tracking website shows thousands of changes to articles originated from federal government offices.
It describes changes to Wikipedia entries that came from individuals using federal government computers. Its rather disturbing, but perhaps not surprising.
Wikipedia entries are designed to be edited by anyone. While its perfectly acceptable for government sources to edit or add facts, the article describes edits that were made to reflect personal or political views or agendas.
I suppose it’s true that government employees could be being paid to produce a slant for Wikipedia entries on a particular topic.
Alternatively one could assume that government employees use Wikipedia like everyone else and occasionally hit things that they feel need to be enhanced or improved.
I blogged about wiki’s and government earlier this week – http://openconcept.ca/blog/mgifford/goverment_wiki_implementations
Not sure that it’s something to be concerned about. Although, it’s interesting to see the results here:
http://katrina.cs.caltech.edu/erenrich_rnd345/scanner_final/domain_selection.php?domain_name=gc.ca
Comment by Mike Gifford — January 6, 2009 @ 3:49 pm