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DavidHambrickPaper2 5 - 17 Dec 2008 - Main.DavidHambrick
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| META TOPICPARENT | name="WebPreferences" |
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Wikis allow anyone with access to a computer in a community of any size to contribute instantly and collaborate simultaneously with very little effort. This last feature is key--wikis work largely because they are easy to access and change. Minimizing barriers to contribution can create benefits like growth and refinement. But minimizing barriers also means an increased risk of vandalism and other abuse. In order to thrive, a wiki's administrators must choose the level of openness that will best balance these benefits and risks. | |
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< | Consider Wikipedia. In 1999, Richard Stallman said that a web-based "free encyclopedia of all knowledge" could be collaboratively authored over a period of ten or twenty years. In [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_History#Formulation_of_the_concept][January 2001], Jimmy Wales put Wikipedia online and it grew even faster than Stallman had anticipated. Stallman thought that an online encyclopedia would be written by teachers who contributed whole articles in their spare time at a rate of a couple per year. But Wikipedia's open editing policy created an even more impressive division of labor by allowing anyone to contribute to or edit any article. | >
> | Consider Wikipedia. In 1999, Richard Stallman said that a web-based "free encyclopedia of all knowledge" could be collaboratively authored over a period of ten or twenty years. In January 2001, Jimmy Wales put Wikipedia online and it grew even faster than Stallman had anticipated. Stallman thought that an online encyclopedia would be written by teachers who contributed whole articles in their spare time at a rate of a couple per year. But Wikipedia's open editing policy created an even more impressive division of labor by allowing anyone to contribute to or edit any article. | | | Countless minor and some more notable abuses followed. The same openness that powered Wikipedia's growth made it an easy target. Some prominent wikis, such as Wikihow, continued to allow anonymous editing because it resulted in more robust content. Others, like Google's Knol, raised higher barriers to contribution by requiring users to register. Wikipedia ultimately left its anonymous editing policy mostly in place, although it has adopted protective measures such as this one and, more recently, this one. | | | One objection here is that such users can simply employ IP address blocking software. This objection fails for two reasons. First, for average computer users, anonymizing software may be difficult to acquire or use. Second, even if they are able to acquire and use software that blocks their IP address, it is likely that Wikipedia will reject the contribution because it was made anonymously. | |
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< | Wikipedia's policies frequently result in the blocking of contributions made using open or anonymizing proxies. For instance, users in mainland China using the popular Tor anonymizing software will be blocked from editing by Wikipedia. And even if the user registers using an open proxy, their edits may still face [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blocking_of_Wikipedia_in_mainland_China#Circumvention_of_the_block][administrative blocks] due to their anonymous origins. There are ways around such blocking, but they may not be available to many average computer users. | >
> | Wikipedia's policies frequently result in the blocking of contributions made using open or anonymizing proxies. For instance, users in mainland China using the popular Tor anonymizing software will be blocked from editing by Wikipedia. And even if the user registers using an open proxy, their edits may still face administrative blocks due to their anonymous origins. There are ways around such blocking, but they may not be available to many average computer users. | | | In refusing to allow fully anonymous contributions, Wikipedia has chosen to prevent abuse in a way that will hamper the wiki's development by chilling contributions in countries with repressive governments. Is refusing to accept anonymous contributions and making user's IP addresses publicly available in an effort in an effort to decrease vandalism the best way of balancing the risks of abuse with the benefits of openness? |
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All material marked as authored by Eben Moglen is available under the license terms CC-BY-SA version 4.
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