I have been struggling to decide what I think about the Wikipedia/WikiScanner episode that played out last week.  Collaboration Loop had some thoughts of their own in the article, The Death of Wikipedia?

But with the release of Wikiscanner we now find that organizations are actively trolling Wikipedia to help themselves, or to hurt others.   We find that our level of trust in Wikipedia has been significantly impugned.  We find that the social computing model is suspect to abuse from those who aren’t playing by the rules.  In effect, our naïve view of the world of wikis is destroyed.

No doubt there are many organizations and individuals that attempted to edit their "own pages" about themselves to correct what they honestly thought were mistakes or untruths.  But even when all parties are open and honest, there will be conflict.

You can't tell me that on a subject like Word War II that representatives from Germany, Japan, France, U.K, Italy, U.S., and the former Soviet Union are in harmony on what to put or not put on that page in Wikipedia.  However, just because Wikipedia shows that there is a disagreement between parties doesn't mean we are all naïve.  No, I think it means we understand the importance to inviting all parties to the table for discussion.  The value of wikis is the sum of all it's parts, even those parts that you disagree.  Nothing more, nothing less, and exactly the way I like it.

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