Wikipedia revamps credential verification policy

Wikipedia, the well-known free content encyclopedia project, finds itself entangled in anonymity and credentials mess. A prominent Wikipedia editor (English) and administrator, working under the pen name “Essjay,” has been lying about his age, background, and academic credentials.

While Essjay, real name- Ryan Jordan- claimed to be a Professor at a private university in Theology, he is a community college dropout from the state of Kentucky, USA. The claim that he held doctoral degrees in Theology and Canon law is also false. Apparently, Jordan, who is 24 years of age, relied on sources such as ‘Catholicism for Dummies’ for information on religion.

This act of providing fraudulent credentials has been successful in Wikipedia due to its basic underlying operating principle. Volunteers write Wikipedia articles collaboratively. Any individual who has access to the website can edit content. This is one of the reasons Wikipedia has gained huge popularity since it was launched in January 2001. The project is now operated by a non-profit organization, Wikimedia Foundation, created by Jimmy Wales. Apart from being the founder of Wikipedia, Wales is also the President of Wikia, a selective Wiki hosting service.

While contributors to the website would still remain anonymous, as stated by Wales from Japan last week, professional credentials of any individual would only be published once verification has been done. According to Wales, "We always prefer to give a positive incentive rather than absolute prohibition, so that people can contribute without a lot of hassle."

Initially, Wales had no apparent problem with the usage of a pseudonym by Jordan. "I regard it as a pseudonym and I don’t really have a problem with it." Upon further realization of the issue, however, his opinion changed. Wales has asked for Jordan’s resignation from his volunteer roles at Wikipedia and his role as community manager at Wikia.

The anomalies in credentials were brought to notice first in February 2007. In July 2006, an article on Essjay was published in the New Yorker. Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, Stacy Schiff, interviewed Essjay. An Update on the article was published in February 2007, stating that the article had erroneously described Essjay as a university professor. The article also published the remaining real facts about Essjay. As per information on the Wikipedia website itself, Radar Online noted the fact correction appended to the New Yorker article on February 28, 2007.

Essjay was appointed to the Wikipedia’s Arbitration Committee on February 23, 2007. As an arbitrator, he had the authority to annul any content provided by volunteers as well as block users who may abuse the site. Essjay announced his retirement in March 2007.

Jordan apologized for any harm done to Wikipedia in a note on his user page. His apology note, in part, read, “…I *am* sorry if anyone in the Wikipedia community has been hurt by my decision to use disinformation to protect myself. I am not sorry that I protected myself; I believed, and continue to believe, that I was right to protect myself, in light of the problems encountered on the internet in these trying times. I have spoken to all of my close friends here about this, and have heard resoundingly that they understand my position, and they support me. Jimbo and many others in Wikipedia's hierarchy have made their [sic] support known as well.”

Ironically, Essjay’s user page once proclaimed, "My Wikipedia motto is `Lux et Veritas' (Light and Truth) and I believe more individuals should contribute with an intention to bring light to the community and truth to the encyclopedia."

Wales had suggested a plan pertaining to the verification of a volunteer’s credentials, around two years ago. The gravity of the matter was understood after the Essjay fiasco. According to him, volunteers who claim expertise in a particular field must be encouraged to prove it and should be asked for verifications. Though the underlying principle of anonymity in Wikipedia content would not change, such policies would have to be put in place.

Wikipedia has faced constant criticism as far as the anonymity principle goes. Reliability and consistency of the content published on Wikipedia has been debated on quite frequently. Critics also argue that the articles display a systemic bias and should not be looked upon as authoritative sources.

Wikipedia has been in the media in instances ranging from juvenile vandalism to cases involving misinformation. In one particular case, journalist John Seigenthaler Sr., was incorrectly described as a suspect in the Kennedy assassinations. This further raised issues about the credibility of the site’s content.

Inspite of all the negative publicity and criticism, Wikipedia fares amongst the eleven-most visited websites in the world. Wikipedia operates with servers in Florida, Amsterdam, and Seoul. It has published over 6 million articles in 250 languages.