A coda: A letter from Jimbo has been published in the New Yorker this week. Regretfully, it seems not to be online, so I'm copying it out below. Hopefully the New Yorker will cut me a little slack for this :) ---------- It's titled "Making Amends."
I am writing to apologize to "The New Yorker" and Stacy Schiff, and to give some follow-up concerning Ryan Jordan (Editors' Note, March 5). When I last spoke to "The New Yorker" about the fact that a prominent Wikipedia community member had lied about his credentials, I misjudged the issue. It was not O.K. for Mr. Jordan, or Essjay, to lie to a reporter, even to protect his identity. I later learned more about the deceptions involved and asked Mr. Jordan to resign from his positions of responsibility at Wikipedia. He has since resigned from his position at Wikia as well. Mr. Jordan is a wonderful and thoughtful young man who made a series of very bad judgments. I consider him a friend, and I hope that the world will allow to move forward in peace and dignity to regain his honor through a life well lived. Wikipedia is built on trust and love. Our trust has been broken, and only love can rebuild it. The community has begun discussing a proposal of mine that we adopt some verification measures for claimed credentials, so that Wikipedia may further improve from this painful experience.
Jimmy Wales President of Wikia, Inc.; board member and chairman emeritus of the Wikimedia Foundation, St. Petersburg, Fla. ----------
My editorializing: though perhaps obvious, it's worth remembering that each one of us -- each editor, each administrator, each board member, each critic -- acts both as an integral part of this community and as a representative of it to the outside world. Our collaborative, non-hierarchical, often tenuous and always multifaceted community is thus only as strong, as trustworthy, and as kind as each one of us. Let's remember what Essjay did right, as an excellent Wikipedian; and let's learn from his mistakes how to behave better ourselves. To me, Jimbo's key words in the above are "further improve" -- the exact mechanism doesn't matter as much as the good faith that this project can, and will, improve. -- phoebe