----- Forwarded message from Barry Meatyard <Barry.Meatyard(a)warwick.ac.uk> -----
From: "Barry Meatyard" <Barry.Meatyard(a)warwick.ac.uk>
Date: Tue, 21 Sep 2004 12:04:35 +0100
To: <jwales(a)bomis.com>
Subject: Entry in Wikipedia
Dear Mr Wales,
Our attention has recently been drawn to an entry for the National Academy on
'Wikipedia'.
The National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth is an English government agency and
part of the national education system.
We are aware that the entry was initiated by a 16 year old Academy student with a less
than complete knowledge of the Academy's remit. Subsequently a number of edits have
been made by even younger students and we accept that some of these are getting the entry
closer to reality. However we would be interested to know the level of editorial control
beyond these edits. For example who removed the adverse comment (merely a student's
perception) dated 30 Aug? Is this done by Wikipedia staff - and if so how are 1 million
plus articles policed?
We would be happy to rewrite the entry to enable it to reflect more accurately the remit
and contractual obligations of the Academy, which of course would be entirely factual as
befits an objective encyclopedia. However we need to be reassured that such objectivity is
not compromised by the facility for those who may have a skewed perspective to air it in
public.
Whilst for some entries it may be interesting to see the evolution of an entry, (as a
professional botanist I was fascinated by the development of some of the plant focused
entries), the fact that potentially damaging and inaccurate comments remain in the
'history' thread is of concern to us as a publicly funded body. You will
appreciate that we are not convinced that a collegiate approach to evolving a definition
for a government agency of which there may be a variety of subjective impressions is
appropriate.
At this stage we are seeking reassurance with respect to the editorial policy of the site
and to request whether inaccurate and potentially damaging entries can be removed from the
history.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours,
Barry
Dr. Barry Meatyard
Director of Student Services
National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth
University of Warwick
Coventry
CV4 7AL
UK
Tel: 44 (0) 24 76 574483
----- End forwarded message -----
--
"La nèfle est un fruit." - first words of 50,000th article on
fr.wikipedia.org