E-democracy gets restricted

By none other than Wiki!

Jimmy Wales, head honcho and co-founder of the online encyclopedia anyone can edit, proposed last week to change the Web site’s entire operating concept so that, well, not just anyone can edit it.

What prompted this change of heart? The fact that Wikipedia briefly killed off both Sen. Ted Kennedy and his longtime colleague Sen. Robert Byrd after they collapsed at President Obama’s inauguration…

It is truly amazing how fast the information gets on Wiki mere moments after someone passes away, or someone is elected to a new office, or some other big news happens. And that access to everyone to update and add on to Wiki is also its downside, as you can see by looking up any controversial word. The entry is always being contested.

Wikipedia already “protects” certain pages — for example, almost anything on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — using a similar method so that passionate users don’t skew them toward favoring a point of view.

So they’ll be policing it more.

Given the often contentious debate on Wikipedia user forums, Wales’ suggestion was surprisingly well received, with the most salient argument against it being simply that it would create too much work. (Almost all high-level Wikipedia editors work without pay.)

(Know the feeling.)

For now, it’s not clear when Flagged Revisions policy would go into effect, and Wales insists it would be only a test.

Look his at his face. He doesn’t seem too convincing.