[WikiEN-l] "So fix it." "The next day someone will fix it back."

[Fastfission]

Excerpt from NY Times Magazine, "Questions for Douglas Hofstadter", 4/1/07:


Q. Your entry in Wikipedia says that your work has inspired many
students to begin careers in computing and artificial intelligence.

A. I have no interest in computers. The entry is filled with
inaccuracies, and it kinds of depresses me.

Q. So fix it.

A. The next day someone will fix it back.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/magazine/01wwlnQ4.t.html

My thoughts:

It strikes me that there is really a crisis of confidence in people
that editing Wikipedia will have any long term effect. I have heard it
many, many times from people on the web and in person as well as seen
it in print. "Why bother, someone will just change it back later, or
erase it?"

I think it is too important to be dismissive about this approach. Even
correctly cited things can be removed or butchered, even incorrectly
cited things can stay on. I'm not sure that increased calls for
citation will solve or even mitigate the problem. Any academic can
tell you that citation is hardly a gold standard; it is not what
convinces people of the accuracy of any claim. In the end that comes
down to trust, and that comes down to authorship, and that comes down
to things that Wikipedia doesn't, won't, and maybe can't do right.

At this point, Wikipedia's epistemology privileges the persistant, the
dedicated, and those with a lot of free time on their hands. Which is
a set of qualities which describes both the best _and_ the worst
editors.

I don't have an answer though. Just something to muse on, in the face
of some rather derisive high-brow publicity from an immensely popular,
immensely intelligent person.

FF