Wikipedia ... The other side

Dave Snowden has written an interesting one about the dark side of wikis ... Something which is an interesting thought about the darker side of "social computing". My take on this ... The essence of "social" computing is the social part. That social computing is putting power in the hands of the people, to contribute to the web of knowledge, and to derive value from it. Democratizing knowledge, or information ... Thats the very essence of social computing.

Now, in any social scenario, there are going to be folks who use these tools constructively, and those who wont. Something we need to live with. The alternative is controls on what people say. Censorship? There has to be a line between building controls, and allowing free flow of dialogue. And, this line is indeed very thin. Must we look at building in censorship into the social computing world, or can we give the social forces to make sure this kind of behaviour dies a natural death?