Think back, if you can, 25 years ago to January 2001, and what do you remember? To jog your memory, that month saw the inauguration of George W. Bush as U.S. President, the launch of iTunes from Apple, and the appointment of the England football team’s first foreign manager, Sven-Göran Eriksson.
While you sit there thinking how old you feel, this will make you feel even worse: it was also the month that Wikipedia was first made public. Now, seven million articles later (and that’s just in English), it has completed a remarkable turnaround. From being almost a byword for dodgy information, it has become one of the most reliable, trusted sources of information in the world. A world where misinformation and disinformation have, at the same time, also become much more prevalent.
Transformation
Thanks to its vast army of editors and contributors, a shared ethos around the importance of verified information, and the consistent leadership of visionary founder Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia has gone from strength to strength to become that rare beast in today’s reputation economy: a trusted, reliable source of unbiased information. But how did a resource that was so derided with so many examples of incorrect information – the multiple deaths of Dave Grohl being one of my favorites – gain so many people’s trust?
Some clues were given by Wales himself in his recent book The Seven Rules of Trust, which boils down how to improve trust in our society to seven simple maxims: make it personal, be positive about people, create a clear purpose, be trusting, be civil, be independent, and be transparent. Most people would agree that these are admirable rules of thumb on how to ensure a happy life, and you can see how these approaches guide Wikipedia editors in presenting the right type of content, especially if it is particularly dark in nature.
Unifying
The real challenge to this type of approach is applying it to an entire society rather than a website, even one as huge and varied as Wikipedia. Where politics and the digital environment seem increasingly polarized, it is difficult to imagine that a few homespun words of wisdom can have much impact. Unless, that is, you add an eighth purpose that encompasses the whole approach itself: Be critical.
In an interview on a UK podcast ahead of Wikipedia’s 25th anniversary, Wales said a critical approach to knowledge was essential for any information people read, and encouraged users to always follow the references provided in the footnotes in Wikipedia entries. For academics, this is a daily task they probably take for granted, but for many people, it is a habit that has not been formed yet. As we are increasingly bombarded with news where the truth we see with our own eyes is being questioned, something as mundane as checking trusted sources with a critical eye has never been so important.
