When a large task force binds together to administer a project, chaos is bound to rear its ugly head from time to time. The fate of projects and ventures that are handled simultaneously by a diverse group rests on the shoulders of those involved - as in how effectively they manage the job at hand. One school of thought is that “many hands make work light,” while another familiar adage is, “too many cooks spoil the broth.”
Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, is currently facing a similar predicament. Being the Internet’s most widely used reference website, it contains free content posted and managed by people the world over, who work voluntarily and coordinate as a team. The site can be edited, rectified and improvised by anyone with Internet access.
Issues pertaining to differences of opinion and conflicting interests surmounted at Wikipedia recently, when Microsoft (
News -
Alert) Corp., the global software giant, made a call for rectifying certain “inappropriate” data on the website. Soon the news spread like rapid fire that Microsoft approached a developer, asking him to modify inaccurate data posted on Wikipedia. Several unsavory reactions from the Wikipedia volunteers brought to light the bottlenecks present in the way of successfully managing and coordinating a website, bearing communal interests.
Through his blog, Rick Jelliffe, an Australian software engineer and author, disclosed that Microsoft had contacted and offered him remuneration for making certain alterations in the web postings on Wikipedia. He was to operate as an independent source there; however is no confirmation about his acceptance of the offer. The revelation has certainly triggered an ethical debate.
Explaining their side of the story, Microsoft brought to notice that they had earlier made efforts to contact Wikipedia with the same concern, before they went further with making an offer to Jeffile.
Catherine Brooker, a spokeswoman at Microsoft’s public relations firm, Waggener Edstrom Worldwide Inc., through e-mail clarified the same, “But Microsoft couldn’t get a reply - hence why they decided it was important to enlist someone’s help to actually address the inaccuracies in the posting so it would be fixed.”
Imprecise data on Wikipedia, catching Microsoft’s attention, are articles on OpenDocument Format and Microsoft Office Open XML
. The former being an electronic document format supported by open-source proponents and the latter a competing format.
Meanwhile, Jelliffe has kept his silence after having caused an initial uproar. The posting on his blog is drawing several harsh reactions as regards the Microsoft offer.
Commenting upon the same, in one of his e-mails, he said, “Yes, they are harsh, but open source and open standards are ideas that capture the minds and hearts of people. They are the new socialism, and the devotees are passionate.”
Wikipedia is currently dealing with friction within its volunteer camp. On one hand, its spokesperson, David Gerard, has berated Microsoft for approaching Jelliffe. However, on the other hand, Mathias Schindler, a member of the board at Wikimedia Germany, applauded Jelliffe via e-mail for this rectification task.
Speaking publicly about the e-mail, Microsoft revealed that the German had also expressed a desire to talk about the Wikipedia postings.
The argument has certainly brought the articles on the OpenDoccument format into focus. As of yesterday, these articles had already seen 21 modifications.
Gerard’s thoughts resonated with those of Brooker’s, when he commented about the benefit that Wikipedia would have from this public discussion, which is bringing in valuable contribution from various people, making its content even more educational.
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Rahul Prabhakar is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To see more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.
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