Just a follow up to my post on Wikipedia from yesterday. This is another audio shot from Weinberger as he examines the authority of Wikipedia at the Berkman Center.
Weinberger offers 5 marks of authority (signals of trust) within Wikipedia entries.
1. The size of the topic. For example, the JFK assasination.
2. The editing history. More edits make something more accurate.
3. The discussion surrounding the entry. All articles have the ability for a forum-like discussion.
4. The meta data of an article. For example, this article needs cleanup or it is in dispute. This is currently the case with the JFK article.
5. The voice, tone, and content as additional metadata for the article.
I have always liked how Weinberger uses history in order to illustrate his arguments. In the discussion, he tied the history of the authority-of-knowledge to those with conviction, an unwillingness to compromise, and often times the loudest voice. What is ironic in this sense, is that being unwilling to negotiate in a Wikipedia entry, is not a sign of authority at all and is just the opposite. The knowledge in the Wikipedia is what makes it through the discussion and comes out the other side.
Listen or download.
