The Ethics of Wikipedia

Note: Of course I learned the hard way, how quickly information travels and situations change in the digital age. I wrote this entry last night about the scandal surrounding Wikipedia contributor Essjay (Ryan Jordan). I made the mistake of not looking on the Wikipedia site before writing this entry. If I had the foresight to do so, I would have seen that Essjay has been asked to resign following the uproar of bloggers and Wikipedians. My original post follows:

The Wikipedia phenomenon is difficult to ignore. Wikipedia is an online user created encyclopedia, and its popularity has grown exponentially over the last few years. For many people (particularly students) it has become a vital tool for their online research. For some, Wikipedia has come to represent the great potential for online communities to drastically shift the dynamic between content provider and content user, or to even some extent between citizen and government. Wikipedia makes it (hypothetically) possible for everyone to create content on the site, allowing for the potential of an unprecedented accumulation of information.
We recently discussed Wikipedia in our digital journalism class using Stacy Schiff’s New Yorker article, “Know it all,” as the starting point for our discussion. Shiff’s article outlines the sites explosive popularity and growth and its increased concern with accuracy and legitimacy.
One of the main subjects of the piece is a Wikipedia contributor named Essjay. Essjay was an example of all that is good about the site. According to the article Essjay claimed to be “a tenured professor of religion at a private university” and held “a Ph.D. in theology and a degree in canon law.” He is a poster-child for the site; an educated and qualified regular contributor.
Well…In the March 5, 2007 issue of the New Yorker there is an “Editors’ Note” about Essjay’s professional claims. It turns out that, “Essjay now says that his real name is Ryan Jordan, that he is twenty-four, and holds no advanced degrees and that he has never taught.”
Is most walks-of-life, fraud makes for professional ruin, legal trouble, or worse. In wikiworld it means job opportunity. Jordan “was recently hired by Wikia- a for-profit company affiliated with Wikipedia as a ‘community manager’; he continues to hold his Wikipedia positions.” Asked about the whole ordeal, “Jimmy Wales, the co-founder of Wikia and of Wikipedia, said of Essjay’s invented persona, ‘I regard it as a pseudonym and I don’t really have a problem with it.’”
Is this what we should come to expect from the web2.0 revolution? A revolution, where dishonesty is masked by anonymity and people like Essjay deceive their way to the top. Having a pseudonym on the Internet is nothing new. But, for a site like Wikipedia that strives to provide factual information it seems quite hypocritical to reward such blatant and unnecessary fraudulence.

USF Community Left Reeling by Fatal Accident

The USF community was left reeling after last Thursday's accident which took the life of Paula Gmelch, whose husband, Walter, is the Dean of the School of Education at USF.

As is often the case at the site of a fatal accident, mourners have erected a makeshift memorial as an outlet for their grief. At the corner of Turk and Chabot where Gmelch was unfortunately standing when according to multiple sources, a Cadillac Escalade made a u-turn forcing a Nissan Pathfinder off the road into two pedestrians, the other identified here by one resourceful reporter as Yansen Setiawan.

The memorial contains a wall of messages which range from ee cummings to offerings of thoughts and prayers to a note from Gmelch's nieces. Also included are a benediction, a photo of Paula and Walter Gmelch and no less than two dozen floral arrangements. All of which reflect the profound loss endured by this community in the past week.

Students Should Learn Lesson from Tragedy

The tragic death of Paula Gmelch on March 1st has brought home the reality of the world in which we live. Pedestrians face dangers every day, and though students, faculty and the wider USF community may be focused on our classes and our social lives as we pass from one part of campus to another, the truth is our school is located directly adjacent to some of the busiest streets in San Francisco.

While it is unclear at this time the exact cause of the accident, it is clear that conditions at that intersection can make for a treacherous crossing, especially when coupled with the scarcity of parking and the distractions of modern driving. This terrible event should give us all pause when we are driving, so that we are careful to pay attention not just to our immediate goal of reaching our destination, but also to others on the road who have a right to get to their destination unharmed.


I did not know Paula Gmelch, but it is impossible not to empathize with those who did. The deep sadness and lost they feel must be hard to bear, especially for Paula's husband Walter Gmelch, who lives just a few doors down from where his wife was killed. My most heartfelt condolences go out to him and all of Paula's friends and family, some of whom have had the opportunity to express their sorrow at the memorial on Turk and Chabot.


A death so sudden and unexpected leaves us all shaken and wondering what to do next. I hope and pray that at the very least, USF students will take this as a sign to drive safely. Paula Gmelch's passing should be a cautionary tale that being late to class is not the end of the world.

Bloggers Reporting

By now the USF community knows most of the details about the tragic accident on Turk and Chabot last Thursday. Word spread among students before anything was found in print or heard on the news. I heard about it in my 5:30 communications law a policy class where one of my classmates said that a woman died and she was the wife of the school of education. I thought most of what I was hearing was gossip and I’d get the real story the next day in the paper.

Interestingly enough, what I heard in class was accurate. I have grown so accustomed to dismissing word of mouth information as gossip until I can check the facts that I did not even think that maybe someone in the USF student body had been out there at the site of the accident recording these facts. In fact, Huner Patterson of the Foghorn broke the story in his blog, "The Bicycle Diaries," two hours before the SF Chronicle. The picture below was taken by Patterson and gives me a very vivid idea of what the scene must have looked like.

It's important to realize that the technologies we have at our disposal are important and necessary tools, not only in journalism, but in recording important events. A USF student was able to hop over to the scene of the accident with a camera and tape recorder to chronicle the facts before any professionals. The importance of this act is so critical in today’s journalism. I learned of the details of the accident through our blog, USFBlogtastic, on Thursday night from the postings of Sam and Professor Silver. I then went to the news online to verify what had happened. The fact that we can not only gather information the instant it happens but post it to blogs so it can be shared is a whole new way of expanding the use of our technologies.

Crowd sourcing, once again, is receiving information from the crowd, and is actually a much smarter way to handle spreading the news. Patterson's story had two hours on the Chronicle's story, just think how much more information we can receive over time if each person involved in an event or tradgedy catalogued thier experiences through a blog or pictures and posted them in real time. We can begin to live through these experiences as they're happening.

Word of mouth can lose the reputation of being mindless gossip because everyone is now an essential part in spreading the news.

The Dangers of Driving: Statistically Speaking

The devastating car accident at the intersection of Turk and Chabot Terrace on March 1st has effected the entire University of San Francisco community. From the site of the accident (middle of USF campus) to 75% of the people involved (faculty member’s wife and two students), every aspect of the accident seems to only hit the USF community harder. As a student driver at USF, it is impossible to ignore the fact that the two drivers involved were both students.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimate that 1.2 million (3242 every day) people are killed worldwide each year as a result of car accidents, and another 50 million are injured. Years and days may be easy to look past, but imagine this: every 13 minutes one person dies as the result of a car accident in the United States. To bring those statistics closer to home California also has the highest rate of traffic fatalities in the country as of 2004. Pedestrians, as in the case of the USF accident are also in danger and should be very aware of what is going on around them. Some 4,207 pedestrians were killed and 65,000 were injured by motor vehicles.

If you look further into auto accidents, WHO’s statistical reports explain the ‘estimated mortality rate’ people from the ages of 15-29 (Us!) ranks above most other age groups (Males in that age group ranked first; however, females have a much lower rank: fourth out of six). Car accidents are the leading cause of death for people ages 16-24.

Those are astonishing numbers, and it seems that people who drive everyday, get in their cars in some kind of ‘auto-mode’—forgetting all of the risks that come along with driving. Multi-tasking only makes the situation worse. From personal experience, I can admit that at any given time during my ‘ride’ I am: changing the music, talking on my cell phone, drinking my Starbucks, and or putting on make-up. With statistics of auto accidents in the millions, I imagine I am not alone.

The car accident at USF was a huge reality check for me. Driving is Dangerous! The point of this blog was not to bore or frighten you with big numbers and statistics; moreover, to try and shed some light on the enormous number of people injured/killed and the even larger number of people who are affected by car accidents.

Other Pedestrian Identified in Tragic USF Accident

Yansen Setiawan, was the other pedestrian who was hit by an SUV on Thursday, March 1st at the University of San Francisco (to my knowledge news stories have not yet identified Setiawan). Setiawan works as a private contractor for The Warehouse Sale and was passing out fliers around campus on the day of the accident. In an email exchange, Kenneth Atman, a colleague of Setiawan, said, "he is a very hard worker and we are lucky to have him on our team." "He has a very positive attitude towards this whole situation, he was even joking and smiling when I visited him a couple of days ago," said Atman. Currently, Setiawan is at SF General Hospital and should be released within a week. "He had some surgery done on Friday for a dislocated hip and some broken bones," said Atman. "The doctor said he should be able to walk again in about a month."

bloggers aren't reporters...

Read what Lia has to say about bloggers. Frankly I'm a little hurt (this is my blog for journalism ethics with Prof. Robertson), because she's talking about what we are trying to do, somewhat saying that bloggers aren't reporters...

Blogger Pride people!