Wikipedia changes are now more trackable than ever

Yeah, I think this is great as well. It keeps those who wish to quietly spin information in check. There was an article today on slashdot that mentioned a Wikipedia Spin Contest. The purpose was to find the most interesting white wash campaign on Wikipedia.

The Colbert Report had a really funny take on this. If you haven't seen it, see if you can find August 21st episode on YouTube.

What this CalTech grad student did is great, but it is only a temporary stop gap for the manipulation of information on Wiki. He is using IP addresses to determine where the edits are originated. Obviously, these Congressional members and corporate guys didn't realize that IP addresses are assigned to them in blocks and can be trace back to an organization name. Now that they know, they will stop making changes from the office and start doing making them from home or hotspots where they are using dynamic IPs. Those IP addresses are assigned to the ISPs (AT&T, Comcast, Verizon, etc) and do not point to the individual or the organizations they work for.

Unless if the ISPs are given court orders to turn over IP history of their customers, it will be impossible to nail down who has been making changes to Wiki. In fact, the music industry had been trying to get the court order to obtain IP history of their customers for quite a while in order to catch pirates. I haven't followed that story for a while and don't know what are the results of those legal actions.