Peter Costello in Wikipedia
Friday, August 24th, 2007
The news today has made much of the Prime Minister’s office computers being used to remove the words, “AKA Captain Smirk” from Peter Costello’s page on Wikipedia. Defence computers are about to be banned from editing other posts. Commentators are concerned that the government is re-writing history.
Wikipedia protocol makes it clear that any persons featured on the online encyclopedia have the right to remove derogatory remarks made about them. The etiquette also calls for a shared perspective to be developed by those editing each page. “POV” (point of view) is edited out by the Wikipedia community, allowing the content to evolve as a set of commonly held perspectives.
Behind the scenes of every Wikipedia article are layers available only to people who are registered as Wikipedia editors.
On the ‘talk page’, a forum for those who are working on the content of the Peter Costello article, writers grapple with suggestions that Costello could be described as a ‘radical Christian’, may or may not have been a member of the Young Labors at university, had ’some’ involvement in the dollar sweets prosecution, has been rumoured to have cancer, and has made dismissive comments about the calls for gay marriage. It is noted that this page is about an active politician who is running for office, is in office and campaigning for re-election, or is involved in some political conflict or controversy. Because of this, this article is at risk of biased editing, talk-page trolling, and simple vandalism.
Due to the interest the page is getting, the Peter Costello entry has been temporarily locked. After all, putting in and taking out the words “AKA Captain Smirk” does get boring after a while.
I taught a class on ‘emerging worship’ this morning, a part of a Trinity College course on Reformed and Evangelical Worship. See my 
