Find Mediators Near You:

Wikipedia – Should We Care?

If Mediate.com is #1 for ‘mediation’ on Google, guess who is #2?

Well, take a look here.

Wikipedia (wikiˈpi¢°di.ə) is the second most visited site from Google searches and, as you would expect from the Internet’s largest reference site, the collaborative online encyclopedia includes an extensive entry for mediation.

And other than being a little Australian centric, it’s there or there abouts, but has room for a lot more detail – and in particular some good links to mediation web resources.

But that’s not my point.

With rare exceptions, Wikipedia’s articles can be edited by anyone with access to the Internet and with that ability we are beginning to see corporate fingerprints in Wikipedia edits.

Yep, from the CIA to the Vatican, it looks like special interests are battling out the “facts” on Wikipedia.

So, if Wikipedia is becoming the new battleground for our hearts and minds; if people really are seeing it as the source of all wisdom, the question arises whether the mediation community should be paying more attention to who is writing up Wikipedia’s mediation pages?

So who is it? Does anyone know?

With this week’s release of WikiScanner that can find where Wikipedia edits originate from it should be entirely possible to find out.

But I thought I would ask first.

                        author

Geoff Sharp

Geoff Sharp is a Commercial Mediator from Wellington, New Zealand. Geoff works in the Asia Pacific region, including New Zealand, Malaysia, Thailand and Pacific Islands. He is a mediator resolving business problems. He is a fellow of the International Academy of Mediators and mediates complex and hotly debated litigation covering… MORE >

Featured Mediators

ad
View all

Read these next

Category

Four Reasons to Try Divorce Mediation

This article was originally printed here, at Derr Law. When we think about getting a divorce, most people immediately start looking for an attorney to represent them. However, mediation has...

By Alex Derr
Category

Why You Shouldn’t Negotiate with Your Spouse

Texas Collaborative law BlogAs a Collaborative case progresses, one or both of the parties often want to "save time" or "save money" by negotiating directly with their spouse, outside of...

By Dick Price
Category

Infidelity and Family Mediation

Fidelity is the spoken and unspoken rule of most marriages.  There are the vows at the beginning of the marriage.  There are ongoing promises of fidelity.  Fidelity is required by...

By Laurie Israel
×