Wikipedia Insists It's Striving for Balance on Divisive Issues

Dina Kraft
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

JERUSALEM

From the Jewish state's January war in Gaza to Holocaust denial, the world's largest collaborative encyclopedia has become a battlefield over history. Yet Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales says that the online, ever-evolving information link, which is powered by volunteer contributors around the world, is able to forge balanced entries, even on the most contentious issues.

"It's a human process, a slow pro-cess," Wales said during an interview in Jerusalem. "Usually, people are pretty good about it, and we find that most people are able to understand the idea of neutrality. They will have a few emotional incidents here and there, but it's a community.

"Of course," he acknowledged, "if someone keeps coming in and does obnoxious things over and over, then the community can decide to ban them. That happens on a fairly regular basis."

One of the Internet's most popular sites, Wikipedia has spurred an online revolution in information gathering. It has literally transformed the way that students -- often to the dismay of their instructors -- and others track information.

But because any Internet user can edit its content, Wikipedia has drawn criticism for being inaccurate at times and subject to agenda-driven contributors.

A few entries considered especially prone to abusive tinkering can be accessed only by designated volunteer editors; all other entries may be edited freely by any registered user. When users are flagged as ongoing troublemakers, they can be banned from the site.

Wales, in Israel attending the 2009 Israeli Presidential Conference, defended the Wikipedia model, saying that most fallacious elements are quickly removed.

"If you want your writing to survive in Wikipedia, you cannot write a one-sided rant; it will just be removed very quickly," he said. "If you really want to get your point across, you have to do it in a way that people find acceptable. So that pushes people in the right direction."

He added, "It's not perfect, of course."

Wales pointed to Wikipedia's treatment of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as an example of how Wikipedia provides a public service -- by informing about the conflict and why it's so intractable. Where there is disagreement over facts, Wikipedia notes it.

"Does that solve the problem?" he asked rhetorically. "No. But at least we've written about what the problem is."

About 200 Israelis are active Wikipedians -- people who contribute and edit entries related to Israel a few times a week.

Israel apparently has the world's highest per capita amount of Wikipedia users. Israelis use Wikipedia in English in large numbers, in addition to other languages like Russian and French. A growing number are also using and contributing to Wikipedia in Hebrew, which is approaching its 100,000th entry.

Itzik Edri is the spokesman for Wikimedia Israel, an Israeli nonprofit branch of the Wikimedia Foundation, which promotes free content and knowledge worldwide. Aside from promoting Wikipedia, the foundation works to put educational content, books, photographs and other resources for free, open use online.

"Our goal is not hasbara," Edri says, using the Israeli word for public relations that benefits the state. "We are about getting more information out there."

According to Edri, who is also among those who write and edit entries, problems in entries on Israeli history or Holocaust-related subjects tend to be fixed by the user community.

"For example, on political issues or personalities, there will always be those writing with a more right-wing position and those with a left-wing perspective," he said. "But eventually, the entries balance themselves out."

Even in Arabic-language Wikipedia entries on Israel-related topics, the writing is more balanced than one might expect, says Edri.

On a lighter note, Wales also talked about Wikipedia in Yiddish, which he said was comprised of "a small but passionate group of people."