Stephen Colbert is a Media Hero
I love social hacking. I tried pulling it off on a smaller scale at Gnomedex (TechMeme Hacked). It’s taken me a while to get into the Colbert Report on Comedy Central, but I have to admit that his latest move has made me a fan. Check it out, as reported by Corey Spring on Newsvine: Stephen Colbert Causes Chaos on Wikipedia, Gets Blocked from Site:
On Monday night’s episode of The Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert addressed the online resource Wikipedia, the encyclopedia that anyone can read or edit. Colbert praised Wikipedia for “wikiality,” the reality that exists if you make something up and enough people agree with you - it becomes reality. Colbert’s subsequent examples to prove “wikiality” would cause chaos on the site, and lead block his account.
The segment has been youtubed already. I’ve publicized my own share of truthiness problems with Wikipedia (specifically, the Wikipedia page about me). This stunt wouldn’t be so funny if it weren’t true. Even Jimmy is telling people to avoid Wikipedia. Take a look at the Fundalini Pages in MAD Magazine - the truthiness is out there. Colbert Nation hasn’t said anything about it yet, though.
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9 Comments
Limulus
August 2nd, 2006
at 3:26pm
Stephen Colbert is a “Media Hero” for making fun of Wikipedia and encouraging people to vandalize it? The founder of Wikipedia is “is telling people to avoid Wikipedia”? Sounds like you’re enjoying some ‘truthiness’ yourself. That or Schadenfreude ;P
Stephen Colbert is clever and funny. But he’s not a “hero” anymore than someone attempting to vandalize Firefox code would be a hero. And the head of Wikipedia was saying that you should not *cite* Wikipedia as a source for university-level assignments. I don’t understand what the problem with that is since they usually list primary sources at the bottom of articles anyway from which one can begin one’s own research.
Small pranks here or there can even be appreciated (see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Bad_Jokes_and_Other_Deleted_Nonsense), but wholesale vandalism cannot.
P.S. I fixed it so that it now says you graduated from the “University of Iowa” ;)
bLaugh » Archive » If Lincoln Blogged
August 2nd, 2006
at 5:56pm
[...] The Gettysburg Address, from Wikipedia: Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this incontinence, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and defecated to the preposition that all men are created with Equal. [...]
Ugh
August 2nd, 2006
at 6:31pm
The problem is that Wikipedia refer to themselves as an encyclopedia when they are no such thing, Jimbo making grandoise statements like “We make the Internet not suck” doesn’t help either. It’s high time they were taken down a peg or two, and will be as more and more people realise that Wikipedia is little more than a giant repository of trivia (much like an extended version of Urbandictionary), a MySpace for nerds, and an glorified Internet message board.
The President is Blogging! ~ Chris Pirillo
August 2nd, 2006
at 9:31pm
[...] The Gettysburg Address, from Wikipedia: Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this incontinence, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and defecated to the preposition that all men are created with Equal. [...]
Mickeleh's Take
August 2nd, 2006
at 11:47pm
Chris Pirillo
bLaugh
August 4th, 2006
at 1:55am
[IMG If Lincoln Blogged] The Gettysburg Address, from Wikipedia: Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this incontinence, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and defecated to the preposition that all men are created with Equal. Now we are engorged in an artificial sweetener war, tasting
Bloggers Blog -- Blogging the Blogosphere
August 6th, 2006
at 4:55am
elephant entries. In the end, Wikipedia locked the elephant entries and Stephen Colbert was banned from Wikipedia. Tawkerblog took credit for blocking Stephen Colbert from Wikipedia (via Smart Mobs). Chris Pirillo calls what Colbert did on his show “social hacking.” More Wikiality coverage can be found at Overlawyered, Newsvine, Jossip, Oilman, Nerve Endings Firing Away, Kairosnews and Narcissistic Graffiti. The buzz in the blogosphere over Colbert’s wikiality episode was big but it was not nearly as
Comparing the candidates for Greatest Living American
April 21st, 2007
at 2:28pm
[...] Colbert is endorsed by Chris Pirillo the Locker Gnome, a pretty Geeky Guy. [...]
Dr. J's 108 Class
November 1st, 2007
at 4:25pm
http://www.english.ucsb.edu/faculty/ayliu/courses/wikipedia-policy.html “Wikiality” (online) http://ydog.net/?p=133 “Wikipedia and Culture” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikiality#Wikiality Colbert and “Social Hacking”http://chris.pirillo.com/2006/08/02/stephen-colbert-is-a-media-hero/