Thank you all! Very helpful. I'll attribute it to Gareth, and note that it's
passed into widespread use.
Thanks,
Sue
-----Original Message-----
From: Joseph Reagle <joseph.nyu(a)reagle.org>
Date: Thu, 17 Jun 2010 18:39:41
To: phoebe ayers<phoebe.wiki(a)gmail.com>
Cc: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List<foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>rg>; Sage
Ross<ragesoss(a)gmail.com>om>; Sue Gardner<sgardner(a)wikimedia.org>
Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] "The problem with Wikipedia..."
On Thursday, June 17, 2010, phoebe ayers wrote:
Actually, the other way around, as others have
stated.
Now that you mention it, I've seen that quote attributed to Gareth
Owen before, so that may actually be the origin of it. I think it's
quite a bit older than 2006 though.
A wonderful question and one I've been interested in since I think such aphorisms have
an interesting normative power (e.g., some others include [a]). Of course scholars, at
least, like it so much *because* it shows that the theory is incomplete and hence is grist
for their mills, i.e., new theory! :-)
I can't provide a provenance any more specific than already noted (i.e., appearing on
Gareth Owen's user page) and I always found it ironically apt that such a prominent
statement about Wikipedia is attributed to an anonymous. (If anyone knows Owen, please
ask!) However, here's a bit of a time-line, I think it certainly spread as a meme in
wider circles thanks to Cohen at the NYT.
20060120: Gareth Owen's user page [1].
20060321: Raul654's adds it to his laws [2].
20070423: Noam Cohen reference in NYT [3].
20070501: Quoted in Wikizine [4].
20070613: Sage Ross refers to it as old hat a few months later in response to popular
Britannica blog entry [5].
20080106: Cohen references it again [6].
[
a]:http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/archived_content/people/reagle/inet-quotati…
[1]:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Gareth_Owen&oldid=359787…
[2]:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Raul654/Raul%27s_laws&ol…
[3]:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/23/technology/23link.html
[4]:
http://en.wikizine.org/2007/05/year-2007-week-18-number-69.html
[5]:
http://www.britannica.com/blogs/2007/06/authority-of-a-new-kind/
[6]:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/books/06cohenintro.html