Wikipedia debate carries on
Brian Fung
Issue date: 2/28/07 Section: News
Members of the College faculty joined students and staff in an open forum Monday to discuss the role of Wikipedia in higher education. Two presentations sponsored by Ross Commons offered differing treatments of the online encyclopedia and debated the value of open-source technology in academic study. The conference represents the latest step in a campus-wide discussion ignited by the Department of History's recent ban on Wikipedia citations in essays and exams.
Assistant Professor of History Amy Morsman sought to address popular concerns that the ban was tantamount to an outright condemnation of the research tool while simultaneously defending the History Department's formal position. She suggested that though justified for broad background research, the citation of a tertiary source such as Wikipedia on major assignments was inappropriate given professors' expectations of their students' work.
"I actually think that Middlebury College students, especially History majors who are taking 300- or 400-level courses, are beyond making Wikipedia the starting point of their research," said Morsman.
Morsman went on to explain that many Wikipedia articles, or "wikis," are biased or inaccurate because of the Web site's fluidity and apparent lack of oversight. In certain cases, competing Wikipedia contributors have edited and re-edited the same document countless times in an effort to have the final say over a wiki's content.
To prove her point, Morsman introduced a video clip of the popular late-night comedy, "The Colbert Report," in which satirical television news anchor Stephen Colbert coined the term "wikilobbying." Colbert described wikilobbying as a war of information between two parties, each trying through open-source Web sites to convince the public of the truth of their particular versions of reality-regardless of their accuracy.
"[This is] more proof of what happens when you bring democracy to information," said Colbert, during the clip. "Open-source software is like free trade, and the invisible hand of the market has the mouse now."
Assistant Professor of History Amy Morsman sought to address popular concerns that the ban was tantamount to an outright condemnation of the research tool while simultaneously defending the History Department's formal position. She suggested that though justified for broad background research, the citation of a tertiary source such as Wikipedia on major assignments was inappropriate given professors' expectations of their students' work.
"I actually think that Middlebury College students, especially History majors who are taking 300- or 400-level courses, are beyond making Wikipedia the starting point of their research," said Morsman.
Morsman went on to explain that many Wikipedia articles, or "wikis," are biased or inaccurate because of the Web site's fluidity and apparent lack of oversight. In certain cases, competing Wikipedia contributors have edited and re-edited the same document countless times in an effort to have the final say over a wiki's content.
To prove her point, Morsman introduced a video clip of the popular late-night comedy, "The Colbert Report," in which satirical television news anchor Stephen Colbert coined the term "wikilobbying." Colbert described wikilobbying as a war of information between two parties, each trying through open-source Web sites to convince the public of the truth of their particular versions of reality-regardless of their accuracy.
"[This is] more proof of what happens when you bring democracy to information," said Colbert, during the clip. "Open-source software is like free trade, and the invisible hand of the market has the mouse now."
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Professor Joseph Rubenstein
posted 2/28/07 @ 3:52 PM EST
Please note March 5 2007 "The Mail" column in the New Yorker. A "site administrator" for Wikipedia is revealed to have claimed false credentials--but the boss doesn't mind. (Continued…)
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