Hi,

I recently joined this group, because I thought it would be a good
forum to solicit some feedback regarding a project I founded. As
former ODP editors, I'm hoping you may have a unique perspective
regarding the topic of "user-powered search".

The project is called SearchSays.com (http://www.searchsays.com), a
search tool that allows all the listings and rankings to be
controlled by end users. We're building something that's more than a
directory, and more than your typical bookmarking site by attracting
users dedicated to indexing quality listings.

(Incidentally, we were launched prior to Jimmy Wales' announcement
in Dec.)

Anyway, if you have the time, please send some feedback. We're
continuing to look for active participants, and certainly former odp
editors would be a welcome addition to the community.

-Rob

"The bursting of the dot-com bubble in the fall of 2001 marked a turning point for the web. . . .

" . . . Far from having 'crashed,' the web was more important than ever, with exciting new applications and sites popping up with surprising regularity. What's more, the companies that had survived the collapse seemed to have some things in common. . . ."

"When I started designing websites, if the guy on the plane next to me asked what I did, I had to say something like 'digital marketing' if I wanted to avoid the uncomprehending stare.

"A few years later, if I told the passenger beside me I was a web designer, he or she would regard me with a reverence typically reserved for Stanley-Cup-winning Nobel Laureate rock stars.

"Then the bubble burst, and the same answer to the same question provoked looks of pity and barely concealed disgust. . . .

"[ . . . ]

"Eventually . . . [t]he web was "back" even though it had never left. . . .

"[ . . . ]

"But how to persuade the other sharks in the tank that this blood feast was different from the previous boom-and-bust? Easy: Dismiss everything that came before as 'Web 1.0.'"

". . . [T]his kind of deception is not new and is not limited to Wikipedia. Does anyone remember Jayson Blair? He both plagiarized and fabricated articles at the New York Times for several years. I do not think Blair has proven that the New York Times is a bad resource though despite his fraud.

"And let's not forget about Stephen Glass at the New Republic. 27 of 41 stories written by Glass for the magazine contained fabricated material. He wrote such fake gems as a 15 year old at national hacker convention and a Church of George Herbert Walker Bush, Jesus Christ. I still like the New Republic as a resource despite the Glass incident.

"People fabricating degrees is not new either. The Chronicle of Higher Education frequently exposes people in higher education with diploma mill degrees. For example, history adjunct Fred Ruhlman at the University of Tennessee was reported at Cliopatria, '(His) 'doctorate' is from 'the American University of London,' a notorious diploma mill and his book, Captain Henry Wirz and Andersonville Prison, was withdrawn from publication by the University of Tennessee Press because of its plagiarism from William Marvel's Andersonville: The Last Depot.' While embarrassing for the University of Tennessee, it hardly means UT degrees are now worthless.

"I can find those fake Blair articles in my library right now in the microfilm versions of the New York Times. Those fake Glass articles from the New Republic are still in the bound periodical section of the library too. However, every edit Essjay has made is being examined and altered if it is found to be problematic. Unlike the mainstream press who have their mistakes archived forever in libraries, Wikipedia can be fixed when the fraud is discovered."

"Based on earlier statements he made, it is possible that [Essjay] used calling cards to phone Schiff for the interview, and his claim may have referred to an offer to reimburse the cost of those calls. . . . Schiff's response [i.e., "That is nonsense."] did not address whether this alternate interpretation was correct."

". . . [T]rusting Wikipedia is . . . a greater personal risk than trusting the New Yorker, regardless of whether the New Yorker is actually more trustworthy than Wikipedia. . . [T]he New Yorker’s puffery about its fact-checking effectively indemnifies [someone] against the risk of looking foolish, in a way that Wikipedia does not. . . .

"This sort of indemnification is precisely what professional journalists are defending when they rudely dismiss blogs–or Wikipedia–as inferior. Rather than make serious, careful comparisons between themselves and alternative information sources–comparisons that would inevitably show themselves to be seriously flawed in their own right–they emphasize the process by which they gather and vet their content."

"The website is an experiment in open-content civic journalism. It allows people to investigate important issues by providing a space where people can collaborate on the documentation of past and current events, as well as the entities associated with those events. The website can be used to investigate topics at the local, regional, or global level. The data is displayed on the website in the form of dynamic timelines and entity profiles, and is exportable into XML so it can be shared with others for non-commercial purposes."

"Paying a source for a story is an absolute no-no in the normal practice of print journalism. And it struck me immediately how incredible it was [Essjay] would accuse Stacy Schiff, a Pulitzer Prize winning author writing for The New Yorker, of this crime. We either have a serious breach of ethics with Ms. Schiff or another dubious statement claim from Essjay (nee Ryan Jordan)."

". . . . We are very concerned about the credibility of the Citizendium as a reference work. . . . We simply do not want to wake up in five years, to find that someone has done a study of the Citizendium and demonstrated that in fact 25% of all of our contributors are using neither their real names nor pre-approved pseudonyms. In short, we've reluctantly concluded that the honor principle, even coupled with a willingness instantly to ban people like Essjay who are exposed for using false personas, really isn't due diligence."

"Larry Sanger has long argued that Wikipedia is anti-intellectual. And, sadly, he has been proven right, by Jimbo's recent fiat appointment of Essjay to the English Wikipedia's Arbitration Committee. . . ."

"I would like to clear up an oversight on my part. I was, until this morning, under the impression that in my initial post on this subject (in response to a question from Dev920 made some weeks ago) I had made an apology for anyone who felt they were hurt by my decision to use misinformation. In speaking to various different people, including Jimbo, I did make it known that I was sorry that anyone felt hurt by my actions, and I believed I had done so in my initial statement. On re-reading that, I find I did not; it was a rather lengthy statement I had been thinking about for some time, and I seem to have left out a rather critical element of it. So, I rectify that now, with further apologies that it was not included originally, as I pointed people back to that statement in the belief it was complete.

"I *am* sorry if anyone in the Wikipedia community has been hurt by my decision to use disinformation to protect myself. I'm not sorry that I protected myself; I believed, and continue to believe, that I was right to protect myself, in light of the problems encountered on the internet in these trying times. I have spoken to all of my close friends here about this, and have heard resoundingly that they understand my position, and they support me. . . . I'm also sorry the New Yorker chose to print what they did about me; there seems to be a belief that I knew they were going to print it, and that is not the case. . . .

"For two years, I have poured my life into making this site a better place. That many people feel hurt by my decision pains me greatly, and to them I am genuinely sorry. To the stalkers, the trolls, and the vandals, I am not sorry; they are abusive, hateful people, and they have done far worse things than those whole of the Wikipeida Community, myself included, have ever thought about doing. . . . I have no intention of going anywhere, because to do so would be to let the vandals, trolls, and stalkers win."

" . . . [Essjay] was described in the piece as 'a tenured professor of religion at a private university' with 'a Ph.D. in theology and a degree in canon law.'

"Essjay was recommended to Ms. Schiff as a source by a member of Wikipedia's management team because of his respected position within the Wikipedia community. He was willing to describe his work as a Wikipedia administrator but would not identify himself other than by confirming the biographical details that appeared on his user page. . . . Essjay now says that his real name is Ryan Jordan, that he is twenty-four and holds no advanced degrees, and that he has never taught. He was recently hired by Wikia—a for-profit company affiliated with Wikipedia—as a 'community manager'; he continues to hold his Wikipedia positions."