Palin, Revere, and "ringing those bells"

Joseph Reagle, author of Good Faith Collaboration, weighs in on the Palin/Revere Wikipedia incident.

In Good Faith Collaboration I write that the prominence of Wikipedia means that it has the ability to affect the subjects it seeks to document. A corollary of this is that it subjects now seek to alter Wikipedia. This has long been recognized as "POV pushing" and is contrary to the norms of Neutral Point of View and Verifiability.

This week we had a rather surreal example of all of this when Sarah Palin's unusual interpretation of Paul Revere's ride became the grist for edits to Wikipedia that were ultimately rejected as POV pushing, but not without some conflict.

Stephen Colbert, satirist and long-time Wikipedia jester, objected to this and encouraged his fans to take their campaign to Wikipedia's article on "bells" so as to make sure it reads: "Bells: Used by Paul Revere to warn the British that hey, you're not going to succeed in taking our guns. USA! USA!"