Wikis are cool. They tap into the collective knowledge of the crowd. But, most of the time the masses are asses when it comes to the Internet. As I’ve said before, even Wikipedia has policies and rules that winnow out…well, garbage.
British Government Minister David Miliband, secretary of state for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), learned this lesson the hard way. The idealistic Miliband thought he would tap into the wisdom of the crowd by setting up a wiki on the idea of environmental contracts, which outline an individual’s responsibility to the environment.
He got more than he bargained for with users posting practical jokes and even swastikas. Poor Minister Miliband had to shut down his wiki toute suite. All it took was one big practical joker, pseudonymous “Guido Fawkes” at order-order.com to get the ball rolling.
Fawkes is not the least repentant. Here’s what he had to say about the whole mess:
“Nobody was interested in his bloody wiki for weeks. Guido generously publicised the wiki and the claim that it welcomed ‘new viewpoints,’ even going to the trouble of making his own polite and reasoned contribution, as did a few fellow co-conspirators,” wrote Fawkes on his blog, claiming that Miliband had “thrown all his toys out of the sandpit.”
Cynthia Brumfield at 11:58 PM|Comments(0)
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