Due to recent scandals that have rocked the online community Wikipedia, the open source repository of knowledge culled from millions of contributors, is being forced to change the rules of who can contribute and who can’t.
CNET : First, in a Nov. 29 op-ed piece in USA Today, a former administrative assistant to Robert Kennedy lambasted the free online reference work for an article that suggested he may have been involved in the assassinations of both Robert F. Kennedy and John F. Kennedy.
Then, on Dec. 1, a new flurry of attention came when former MTV VJ and podcasting pioneer Adam Curry was accused of anonymously editing out references to other people’s seminal podcasting work in an article about the hot new digital medium.
To critics of Wikipedia–which, in a spin on the open-source model, lets anyone create and edit entries–the news was further proof that the service has no accountability and no place in the world of serious information gathering.