The academic world has been sceptical of Wikipedia since its launch in 2001. Now the controversial website is suspicious of academics, following a scandal in which a world-renowned computer scientist has been banned from editing the online collaborative encyclopaedia.
Carl Hewitt, associate professor emeritus in electrical engineering and computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is alleged to have disrupted Wikipedia for more than two years by using it for self-promotion, tampering with his own biography and manipulating computer science articles to inflate the importance of his own research. Senior academics in his field say the changes he made have rendered some entries in effect useless.
Administrators have claimed that his 'disruptive' activities were 'hurting Wikipedia'. Hewitt was found to be citing his own work in articles where it was not relevant, obscuring points of view at odds with his own theories, and editing his biography to promote his forthcoming public appearances.
Even though Hewitt has more than four decades of academic work and numerous plaudits behind him, his contribution to Wikipedia was seen as so damaging that one administrator involved in an arbitration concluded: 'I do not believe Wikipedia would be improved by allowing Carl to edit articles on computer science, physics and mathematics.'
In his defence, Hewitt claims on a Wikipedia talk page he is being 'censored' and 'harassed' by Wikipedia administrators and users. He has requested that his biography be deleted from the encyclopaedia, blaming 'repeated vandalism' for making it 'continually inaccurate' so that it 'significantly misrepresents both me and my work.' An arbitration committee has rejected his request, and his biography stands with Hewitt powerless to change it.
The banning of Hewitt shows that the academic community is in fact actively involved in editing Wikipedia, but may be no more reliable and trustworthy than any other group of users. As users prepare to redraft the computer science articles without Hewitt's input, no one is sure why a world-class expert would go to such extremes to promote himself. 'Hewitt may have a legitimate complaint about the lack of recognition that his work has received,' said Kowalski. 'It's a pity he couldn't find a better way to achieve it.'