It's not easy being Wikipedia, a free web encyclopedia created and edited by anonymous contributors. Just ask founder Jimmy Wales, who has seen his creation come under fire as the site fends off vandalism and charges of inaccurate entries. But Wikipedia, founded in 2001 as a non-profit organization, has become a big enough presence that it raises a number of interesting questions. Just how accurate is free content? Does the aggregate 'wisdom of the crowd' trump the expertise of knowledgeable individuals? Do the policing mechanisms that are in place really work?  

I think the controversy over Wikipedia merely reflects further tension between old and new media. Newspapers are suffering, music publishers are litigating - advertising dollars are floating from place to place, looking for safe harbor. Presently, media consumers are drowning in a sea of information, unsure of what's trustworthy and what's false…unsure of how to process all the data.

Hey, no one ever said revolutions were easy.

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