Wikipedia Founder Launches Political Mudpit
Jimmy Wales the creator of Wikipedia, has launched a wiki designed to be a resource for information on issues, parties, and campaigns. Unfortunately, the effort demonstrates right out of the gate that highly charged issues may not be the best use of the wiki format where readers get to edit entries themselves.
The battle has already begun. The very first entry listed on the Campaigns Wikia home page, Terrorism, opens thusly: "Terrorism is bad, but it can in no way destroy our way of life in the same way that overreaching, liberty-infringing state action to stop terrorist acts certainly can."
This certainly doesn’t meet the mission established by Mr. Wales in his open letter of July 4 where he announced this effort: "I am launching today a new Wikia website aimed at being a central meeting ground for people on all sides of the political spectrum who think that it is time for politics to become more participatory, and more intelligent."
An intriguing concept, but one that seems to be destined to fail.