Puppy smoothies: Improving the reliability of open, collaborative wikis

Authors

  • Tom Cross

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v11i9.1400

Abstract

The reliability of information collected from at large Internet users by open collaborative wikis such as Wikipedia has been a subject of widespread debate. This paper provides a practical proposal for improving user confidence in wiki information by coloring the text of a wiki article based on the venerability of the text. This proposal relies on the philosophy that bad information is less likely to survive a collaborative editing process over large numbers of edits. Colorization would provide users with a clear visual cue as to the level of confidence that they can place in particular assertions made within a wiki article.

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Published

2006-09-04

How to Cite

Cross, T. (2006). Puppy smoothies: Improving the reliability of open, collaborative wikis. First Monday, 11(9). https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v11i9.1400