I love Wikipedia even more since hearing a speech by Sue Gardner, executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation, who delivered the Dalton Camp Lecture at St. Thomas University in Fredericton.

The 2009 Dalton Camp Lecture in Journalism

My quarrel with Wikipedia has to do with the role of Wikipedia Editor. Sue Gardner was very proud that all the editors are volunteers.

I volunteered and wrote these four articles:

• DAVID LOCHHEAD
• ECUNET
• UCHUG
• KITSILANO BOYS BAND

I also encouraged a friend, Bill Reimer, to write an article onThe Rev. Dr. Jack Shaver. He did this with great success to start with but is now running into problems. See JACK SHAVER in Wikipedia. Bill's comment:

I share your frustration with Wikipedia. I have had to spend too much time dealing with bots and others that keep changing stuff on the Shaver page. I have given up keeping a photo there since even when I comply with their wishes, etc. it keeps getting removed. I have also found that the list of links I included were removed for some reason

GL:The term “bot” which Bill mentions is short for Robot, and refers to some automatic programs which change and alter your Wikipedia entry, without any human editing. That frustrates me as well, because I think some of the annoying manipulation of my articles was done by “bots”. Ziba Fisher is harsher even than I on these questions. Ziba writes:

Bill's response opens nasty doors -- bots??? Its bad enough to have machine dictionaries that still don't recognize the word 'Google' (there, on my copy, 'Google' is singled out) (hey, did it again).

But to have the powers of removal !!! Mechanized . Saddening.

I have to be upfront -- there is a Wiki article with which I take exception. And I am personally pleased to know that I may make/suggest modifications to what has been authored by someone else -- the original has historical errors, serious ones, and is slanted so as to conform with the writer's personal interpretations of events. Quandary time for me.

Later Ziba wrote: I suspect that time will teach that the topic listed below as # 3 [i.e. Long Term Retention of Important Digital Information] will prove the most important of the three. My major concern is in the area of family trees -- I would like some assurances that the research does not evaporate, get stubbed, etc.

My four articles were in place until about February, 2010 For two years I had no problems. Suddenly there was a big change.

DAVID LOCHHEAD was cut down to what they call a “stub”.
• ECUNET totally disappeared without a trace. (All the good reference materials and connections were gone. Furthermore the “Talk” page was altered and did not allow me to protest the savaging of this article. )
• UCHUG also disappeared and also it’s “Talk” page, so I had no opportunity to protest.
• KITSILANO BOYS BAND has been reduced to a “stub” as well. (It is now 3 lines in length in place of two or three pages, complete with footnote references.)

I have found no avenue of protest. In the first instance I had to argue for weeks for the inclusion of DAVID LOCHHEAD and finally won the argument. This time there is no place even for me to place my argument!

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Ian MacKenzie is concerned that articles such as the well-researched article on David Lochhead and Ecunet will be simply dropped by Wikipedia and has this suggestion:

Let's put the articles on the IRTC web site with a title that indicates they were dropped from Wikipedia. Thus when search engines are used the protest will come up.

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Some of the readers were concerned that Wikipedia is not a good place to store information, considering the arbitrary changes which they make.

My approach so far is to buy one of the Large Backup systems which are becoming very reasonable these days. Mine is called “The Book” and it will store about 500 GigaBytes. (that’s half a Terabyte). A one TeraByte external hard drive at our Future Shop sells for $100. I have receontly purchased a new computer with a one TerraByte hard drive.

This does not solve the problem about how Wikipedia is backed up. It looks like we have to do it ourselves!

Gordon Laird was selected by David Lochhead to be a Director of The David Lochhead Institute for Religion, Technology and Culture Society. Gordon currently serves as Secretary-Treasurer.

Copyright: The David Lochhead Institute for Religion, Technology and Culture Society. May 21, 2010

Return to: Gordon Laird's Home Page

Updated: May 25, 2010