Wiki-spin

Wikipedia revolutionised the concept of online information. Gathering data, researching topics and sharing information became as easy as a few clicks of the mouse. Create an entry on almost any topic under the sun, add details or edit matter, delete wrong information, update news as and when it happens -- there are very few limits to what one can do.

There are no substitutes for going through archives online or otherwise, but Wikipedia proved a valuable starting point for the information gathering process. From teachers and students to the CIA and Microsoft, millions of people freely edit and get information from the internet encyclopaedia.

But it's open nature, at the very core of its popularity, has left it vulnerable to vandalism in the past, from pranksters playing an April Fool's joke to multinational corporations subtly rearranging words and phrases to their own advantage. This has left many critics and fans of Wikipedia questioning the integrity of its information.

The worldwide online community is the guardian of Wikipedia, protecting against vandalism. But where defacement of a malicious nature is easier to pinpoint and correct, it is sabotage of the spin kind, by politicians, big companies and organisations that is more difficult to detect. US congressmen have edited their own entries, as has supermarket chain Wal-Mart. Clever tweaking of information makes it look like the basic information is intact. But in fact it lends a more favourable outlook. That, in essence, is spin.

One of the more prominent cases was of Diebold Election Systems. A significant portion of the company's entry questioning the integrity of the electronic voting system was found deleted. Following the trail, it was later traced back to the company itself. The discovery of Diebold's duplicity was perhaps more damaging than the dubious spin tactic would have helped in the first place.

And what about that institution of disinformation -- intelligence agencies and their spy networks? Very few people would refuse to believe that the CIA and MI5 have not removed information or planted misinformation in a deliberate attempt to dupe the public. OhMyNews has this interesting article about Wikipedia and the Intelligence Services.

What then is the future of Wikipedia? Wired has discovered CalTech student Virgil Griffith who has discovered a method to expose the anonymous editors of Wikipedia. Follow the IP trail in See Who's Editing Wikipedia.

The fight is far from over yet. Strike one for spin.