This document discusses how Wikipedia has changed biography by becoming the most consulted source for biographical information on famous and non-famous individuals alike. It notes controversies around biographies of living people on Wikipedia due to inaccuracies and vandalism. However, it also argues that Wikipedia's collaborative editing process could produce biographies with less bias than traditional single-authored works, and that Wikipedia exhibits a form of "peer review" and "open source scholarship".

1. Wikipedia and the Making of a (Wo)Man: Biographical Construction in the Digital Age Chris Sweet Illinois Wesleyan University PCA / ACA Annual Conference St. Louis 4/2/2010

2. “I’d be happy to have, in theory, a good, neutral biography of every single person on the planet. I mean why not, right?” -Wikipedia Founder, Jimmy Wales. Wall Street Journal, Aug. 8, 2008

4. Who’s Who? Series

5. Regular Encyclopedia (major figures)

7. 6th most popular internet site (behind Google, Facebook, Youtube)

8. Jan. 2010, 365 million unique users! 11.1 billion page requests.

9. Majority of Wikipedia hits come from Google searcheshttp://stats.wikimedia.org/reportcard/ http://www.alexa.com/topsites

11. Michael Jackson’s Wikipedia article was viewed 30 million times in the 2 months following his death (6 million of these in the first 24 hours).

12. The day Sarah Palin was announced as McCain’s running mate her Wikipedia page had 2.4 million views (after a rash of edits the night before).

13. Wikipedia also has bios for all 493 Pokemon characters!NY Times, Sept. 1, 2008 and Aug. 25, 2009

14. Wikipedia is far and away the most consulted source for biographical information. Biographies of living people have been the most controversial aspect of the rise of Wikipedia.

16. Wikipedia bio: “John Seigenthaler Sr. was the assistant to Attorney General Robert Kennedy in the early 1960's. For a brief time, he was thought to have been directly involved in the Kennedy assassinations of both John, and his brother, Bobby. Nothing was ever proven.“

17. This was part of his bio for 132 days

20. Kennedy, who was being treated for brain cancer, had a minor seizure at the luncheon and was taken to a local hospital.

23. As an experiment, Shane Fitzgerald, a student at University College, Dublin, inserted this fake, undocumented quote into Jarre’s bio:

24. “One could say my life has been one long soundtrack. Music was my life, music brought me to life, and music is how I will be remembered long after I leave this life. When I die there will be a final waltz playing in my head that only I can hear.”http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/05/07/2562940.htm

27. Editors must take particular care adding information about living persons to any Wikipedia page. Such material requires a high degree of sensitivity, and must adhere strictly to all applicable laws in the United States, to this policy, and to our three core content policies:

28. Neutral point of view (NPOV)

29. Verifiability (V)

30. No original research (NOR)

31. Autobiography policy: “Writing an autobiography on Wikipedia is strongly discouraged.”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Biographies_of_living_persons

32. Interesting, But So What?

34. “Belief in the authority of biography results from continual correction and comparison, through new evidence or interpretation, of the biographer’s account with those of others.”(3).

36. Should the idea of “communal biography” be recognized as an entirely new genre?

37. Is this not an example of “peer-review,” the cornerstone of scholarly publishing played out in real time?

40. Rosenzweig again: “American National Biography Online may be a significantly better historical resource than Wikipedia, but its impact is much smaller because it is available to so few people.”

41. As a librarian, I’d be willing to bet that the Wikipedia Michael Jackson article gets more hits in a year than all the American National Biography Online combined.

43. “It is said that Zaphod Beeblebrox's birth was marked by earthquakes, tidal waves, tornadoes, firestorms, the explosion of three neighbouring stars, and, shortly afterwards, by the issuing of over six and three quarter million writs for damages from all of the major landowners in his Galactic sector. However, the only person by whom this is said is Beeblebrox himself, and there are several possible theories to explain this.” – The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Fit the Ninth