Digital Journal — The online encyclopedia under fire for reliability issues could soon be colour-coded for truths, half-truths and outright lies. A computer science professor in California has created software that flags questionable content in Wikipedia entries.
Created by Luca de Alfaro and colleagues at the University of California, Santa Cruz, the Wikipedia Trust Coloring Demo highlights text in gradations of orange if there is reason to doubt its content. The deeper the orange, the more likely it is false.
How does the software do this? An Associated Press article explains:
By diving into Wikipedia’s open volumes of edit histories, the software counts the degree to which any given contributor’s work survives subsequent edits by other people. In general, the less tinkering your work on Wikipedia engenders, the more trustworthy you are deemed to be.
de Alfaro said he wants the software to act as a useful b.s-detector, even though he trusts most of what Wikipedia publishes. He told Associated Press the software is designed to track what editors change on individual entries:
What I wanted to make sure is that nobody can single-handedly modify information without some trace of that being available for some time afterwards.
But it’s important to note that the system isn’t foolproof, since accurate entries might get overwritten in articles on controversial topics.
Wikipedia Trust Colouring is in demo mode but its existence underscores the importance of checks and balances for any online encyclopedia purporting to be reliable. Wikipedia often has to defend itself when headlines trumpet the tarnished credibility of the site (such as Sony bashing Halo 3 on the site, and Dutch Royals editing an entry on a scandal affecting their family). With a software tool that can let readers know what’s credible info and what’s not, Wikipedia should be put on a higher pedestal in the eyes of the public.
If the Wikipedia Foundation wants to rise above the bad press clogging its arteries, it should consider this third-party tool — and many others — in order to keep its reputation in the good graces of its millions of readers worldwide.
