2. You should write your own biography, not delegate it to invisible masses on Wikipedia.

3. You should write other people’s biographies, from your point of view. Or at least tell true stories about them, which can be assembled by others into alternate views.

4. Sign your name to all your writing. Use your real name, the one on your driver’s license, tax returns, passport, draft card.

5. If you care about a subject, write a definitive piece on it that reflects your point of view,. Don’t settle for a compromise, group-think sanitized version in the form of a Wikipedia page.

Dave Winer, “Corporate media is the problem“, Jan 17th, 2010

In response to Wikiality, a friend sent me the above quote from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympics_on_television.

With the right context, the wikiality is likely true, but you only need the most basic knowledge of world history to believe that an earlier Olympics was the first televised. I’m no history buff, and I know that footage of the Olympics in Nazi controlled Germany was televised.

The reference for that wikiality 1960 Winter Games truth is “Olympics and Television” published by the Museum Broadcast Communications, an American organization. The article appears completely focused on American television. The article begins “Since their first telecast in 1960, the Olympic games have enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship with television.” That would seem to be the origin of the fact.

Olympic.org, “the official website of the Olympic Movement” makes no mention of television for the 1960 Winter games article. Articles on other sites, such as “Television Sports Milestones –– A Chronology Of An Industry” don’t include the 1960 Winter as a milestone.

There are numerous sources that dispute that fact:

• From an Olympic.org article, “The 1936 Olympics were also the first to be broadcast on a form of television.”
• From a TVHistory.tv article, “1936 German (Berlin) Olympics … This marked the first live television coverage of a sports event in world history.”
• Another article from Olympic.org includes, “The 1948 London Games were the first to be shown on home television, although very few people in Great Britain actually owned sets.”

It seems there is no strong support the “1960 Winter Games [...] marked the first time the Olympic Games were televised.”

"Wikipedia is Accurate" BustedTees Shirt

A friend asked me what was wikiality about “Six Apart, Ltd. the world’s largest blogging company”. Is it that a reference is needed? That the statement is vague? That the article appears to be wholly autobiographical?

Yes, probably all those things and maybe some others.

Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia with open contribution. And it seems to be the reference of choice for bloggers. Around 100 of my articles link to Wikipedia.

Although, I continue to use Wikipedia as a reference. I use it for only for general orientation. Few articles I read there don’t have some problem with them. Wikiality represents “A reality where, if enough people agree with a notion, it becomes the truth.” and Stephen Colbert used it to triple the population of elephants.

You don’t need Steven Colbert to excite his viewers into changing articles about elephants to create wikiality and improve Wikipedia’s “truthiness”.

There is a huge Wikipedia frontier of articles. It includes almost 2.5 million articles, and although many meet encyclopedic standards, it’s safe to say most of its articles to do not.

After a few mediocre experiences with the Wikipedia Clergy, I’ve decided it would be fun and still possibly useful to document my encounters with wikiality here.

Do you have any wikiality experiences to share?