Dispelling myths, advocating truths in Wikipedia

There is a heated debate going on online regarding the Reproductive Health bill, but this one doesn't concern the morality and poverty alleviation aspects of the controversial legislation. Behind the curtains of the official Wikipedia entry about the bill, passionate editors of the popular free encyclopedia are disputing allegations made by one user that Adolf Hitler's holocaust spawned the present population control policies of many nations today. Among the many arguments, those counter to the proposition are disputing the source of the allegation; the reputation of former Senator Francisco Tatad — who quoted from the original source — as an expert about reproductive health; and the placement of the said allegations under the "history" portion of the RH bill article. This is the kind of debate going on behind the facade of a typical Wikipedia article, which users of the online encyclopedia tend to overlook. As such, Wikipedia has been dismissed time and again as an unreliable source of information due to its very nature, which allows just about anyone with Internet access to edit and place unverified statements in any article. Tertiary literature This is what Wikimedia Philippines, the local arm of Wikimedia Foundation — the international non-profit organization responsible for the birth of Wikipedia — hopes to make users understand. Founded only in 2010, the group is composed of about 20 active Wikipedia editors who advocate promotion and education about Wikipedia offline. "There are doubts that Wikipedia is unreliable, but people still read Wikipedia, right?" asked Remi de Leon, a professor of development communication and one of the members of the group, during their annual Wikipedia Convention held at the Asian Institute of Management on Saturday. "The trick is to take it with a grain of salt," De Leon said. "The advantage (with Wikipedia) is that you can verify for yourself if the claims are true." Footnoted under most Wikipedia articles are links to various sources where the statements supposedly came from. De Leon said it's supposed to be the policy that every editor cites or attributes external sources for every information they add or change in the article. "Wikipedia is considered tertiary literature. You're supposed to go to the original literature. Encyclopedias are often based on textbooks which are based on published scientific papers," he clarified. He warned that when a particular statement seems dubious and is not cited, then it's likely that it shouldn't be trusted as verified truth. "I'm one of the professors who tell their students not to use Wikipedia," De Leon revealed. "[Students] are not supposed to be citing reference materials, but only use them as starting points for finding the literature that they need." In this sense, De Leon noted, Wikipedia is a much more effective research tool since it already leads researchers to various sources. Internal debates Eugene Alvin Villar, one of the more senior editors who have been doing Wikipedia edits since 2002, said that in a sense, Wikipedia can be compared to the thick volumes of encyclopedia every library used to have. "Traditional encyclopedias have internal debates and discussion among their editors on how to improve their articles," he said. "With Wikipedia, that process is made public." In Wikipedia, this internal debate happens at every article's Talk page, which can be accessed by clicking the "Discussion" button at the topmost part of the article. "Basically, if you really want to understand Wikipedia, to get an idea of how articles are made, the major place for that is the Talk page of articles," Villar said. The heated argument concerning Hitler and the world's population control policies is just an excerpt out of a very long discussion on the Reproductive Health bill's Talk page, which is already a lot longer than the article itself. But as it is, debates in the Talk pages could take as long as they could, and statements can be put back and reverted at every point of the argument. "There is really no arbiter [to settle such disputes]," Villar admitted. "People generally arrive at a consensus based on the strength of the arguments and their sources. The one with the stronger source usually wins." De Leon said that while there is no main arbiter, "Wikipidea has communities watching over the pages," such as Wikimedia Philippines. "There are administrators, but they only police bad behavior," Villar lamented, adding that it is one of the goals of their organization to encourage more involvement in terms of editing Filipino-related articles on Wikipedia. "Involvement helps the person understand how best to use Wikipedia, and to sense when an article is unreliable," De Leon said. "The more edits there are, the more reliable the article becomes. Expanding knowledge De Leon said that in his active participation in Wikipedia, he aims to expand the world's knowledge about the Philippines, particularly its history and roots. "There are many facts and stories left untold that never make it to an encyclopedia, but they're still important," he said. "But because encyclopedias have a natural limit to what they can contain, they have a natural bias to prominent facts. Wikipedia allows me to promote local and indigenous knowledge, and introduce uniquely Philippine perspectives to the wider world," he added. To date, De Leon has contributed at least 4,300 edits to the free encyclopedia. He considers the historical account of the Philippines between 900 A.D. and the year 1521 as his most important contribution. On the other hand, Villar, who grew up as a kid reading encyclopedias like they're typical children's fare, has over 13,500 edits on the site. Of the multitude of contributions he has done, Villar says his most important ones are the maps of the Philippines and of Manila, which have become featured content on Wikipedia. "For me it's a way of giving back. It's satisfying to know you're doing something that is building up the public's knowledge. It's free so it's going to be read by a lot of people," he shared. — RSJ/HS, GMA News