The highly respected Jon Udell suggests that Wikipedia “greatest innovation is arguably the framework it provides to mediate the social construction of knowledge, advocate for neutrality, accommodate dispute, and offer a path to its negotiated resolution.” True, Wikipedia has developed a highly organized system for editing the content. However, the success of any such social system depends upon the individual members of the society that are contributing to the project. Hence, again, my renewed emphasis that librarians and academics should participate more fully in the Wikipedia project. Yet, I suspect that many academics will tire of participating in Wikipedia’s if they continually have to argue their disputes with the proverbial maniacal, random guy who has never studied in-depth the scholar’s area of expertise but still chooses to argue a point. While much knowledge is subject to bias and interpretation, scholars have been trained to explore those issues extensively.

So, why Wikipedia has established a great framework for editing and handling disputes, it’s validity still depends upon the effective participation of society….a much harder concept.