The Floyd Landis entry on Wikipedia was an interesting case study. Many will remember that cyclist Floyd looked gone after Stage 16 of the 2006 Tour de France. But the next day he made an astonishing recovery to blitz the field and to go on to win the yellow jersey. Tests indicated his Stage 17 was fuelled by more than blood, sweat and tears, and soon after the Tour, news of a positive drug test emerged. Landis furiously protested his innocence (surprise, surprise) and it has taken until this week for second place getter Oscar Pereiro to be awarded the yellow jersey.
Part of Landis's strategy to fight the drug charges was to use the 'wiki' defence. He posted documents online to get contributions from as wide a range of people as possible, in the hope that some of them would be able to provide concrete support for his defence. He blogged and forumed, there was a web site and a wiki, and he and his supporters engaged fiercely and frequently online.
Here was an opportunity for a bad, biased, doctored Wikipedia entry. But in fact the Floyd Landis Wikipedia entry is an example of a good Wikipedia entry. People from both sides have ensured it is reasonably balanced. Initially I thought it was a bit pro Floyd, but that is the nature of Wikipedia in that the articles are always works in progress.
After seeing fellow Tour de France cyclist and all round super man, Stuart O'Grady, make some damning comments on Australian 60 Minutes I thought I would enter the fray.
I added to the entry quoting Stuies view. I thought it would be interesting to see how long it would take the internet savvy Landis camp to remove my edit. But several months later it is still there. This to me indicates a great victory for Wikipedia as a reasonably balanced encyclopedia, and as an excellent example of creative and positive use of the internet as a broad introduction to a vast range of subjects.
The Floyd Landis Wikipedia entry works well from other points of view too. It is very well footnoted for instance.
Anyway Wikipedia 1 Floyd Landis 0
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1 comment:
Great post - first-hand experience of the real thing!
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