By now I’m sure you’ve heard the news that the anti-virus company Avast! suspended iYogi support service from its products last week. It made news in blogs and forums throughout the tech community, including The Force Field.
The news made it into Wikipedia as well.
The Wikipedia entry for iYogi was updated March 15 with news of the suspension. My initial reaction was one of disbelief. It soon gave way to feelings of great annoyance, disdain and insult. However, my reactions were not directed at iYogi, although the name itself is known to evoke those same emotions within the IT community.
No, they were directed solely at the source itself. Wikipedia.
This is what bothers me about Wikipedia. They willingly accept entries for trivial items about large companies and famous people, but smaller companies or little known entities they will immediately reject. I understand their reasoning for this, but it is seriously flawed, because it attempts to elevate the larger entities beyond their already perceived status of importance while it even further demotes the “nobody status” of the little guy, which isn’t really fair and defeats the purpose of having an online encyclopedia in the first place.
If I want to know more about a topic, I look it up in an encyclopedia. If that topic is common knowledge already, chances are I know about it, so there is little reason to do so. The reason I look something up is because it isn’t common knowledge and I want to find out more about it to increase mine.
Every company, large and small, contributes to history and society in some way. It may be to only a minute degree, but each degree does count. Wikipedia’s approach is to “snub” the little guy whose contribution is considered by them too miniscule to matter, in effect placing themselves in the position as judge and jury over historical fact. Such snubbing of small companies indicates their criteria for “important contribution” is the size of their wallet, their fame factor or the amount of revenue they generate instead of to simply collect and catalogue actual data on human knowledge in general.
The original purpose of an encyclopedia was to collect and catalogue all known human knowledge and fact. When I was a kid, I could look almost any topic of relevant knowledge in an encyclopedia and learn about it. This did not, however, include diversions such as movies, television shows and celebrities in the entertainment world. Those were contemporary diversions that had little to do with the accumulation of relevant knowledge having significant impact on sustaining society.
Gilligan’s Island wasn’t in the encyclopedia. Neither was the Kellogg Company. Yet both are listed in Wikipedia as if they were somehow relevant or important to know for our very existence.
They may be popular icons and people may want to know more about them, but they are not equal in human relevance to topics such as how a television works or how cereal is made. However, Wikipedia, in its self-appointed wisdom, drew a new line on what is considered important human knowledge by giving them all equal billing.So, if Gilligan’s Island and the Kellogg Company are now somehow equal to something really important to know for our existence as a society, then technically speaking, so is everything else. Not so fast, says Wikipedia. We have to draw the line somewhere, they say, so we will determine this based on how popular or well-known the item is.
And what items meet this criteria? Well, we’re not really sure, and apparently, neither is Wikipedia, since that determination is in the eye of the beholder, so to speak. There are some obvious ones, of course. Lady Gaga makes the list, as do most other entertainment celebrities. Little known or one run network TV shows that were never popular and few care about, such as Do Over, are listed as well.
Even popular podcasts such as Keith and the Girl make the list, because they are already well-known to podcast listeners (although the general public is still largely unaware of what a podcast is).
Since such an entry seemed to be accepted as “relevant knowledge” for an encyclopedia, I attempted to submit The Force Field. It was flatly rejected. Why? Because it wasn’t well-known, popular, or a recognized brand name. Recognized by whom? Those in the IT industry? podcasters? Or people at Wikipedia?
It’s an arbitrary line, determined solely by Wikipedia. They set themselves as the final authority on what is considered relevant knowledge and what isn’t. Lady Gaga is deemed just as important to the total knowledge necessary for continued human existence as the process for manufacturing breakfast food. Yet a podcast for the masses is more important than one aimed at a specific segment of the podcast listening population.
In my opinion, iYogi has no place whatsover in Wikipedia. But if they are there, everything else should be there too. I mean everything. After all, It’s all knowledge. It’s either all or nothing.
The Force Field
Nice post.