It would be a mistake to suppose that Wikipedia operates with “nobody taking responsibility.” Arguably, every reader takes some responsibility, since every reader has the potential to correct an error. (I corrected an error in a Wikipedia entry just last week.)

Some of Wikipedia’s current critics have compared the encyclopedia unfavorably with Linux. Linux is different, they argue, because it has the GPL — the GNU General Public License. It’s true that Wikipedia’s content creators don’t have to agree to the GPL, but it passes over the obvious question — who enforces the GPL? The answer is, no one and everyone. (While it’s the case that the Free Software Foundation occasionally threatens legal action based on the GPL, it has nothing like the resources to act as an enforcement body, as such things are normally understood.) The real enforcers of the GPL are the individual programmers.

Similarly, the real enforcers of accuracy in Wikipedia are its readers and writers (with the latter a large subset of the former). My reaction when someone complains about an inaccuracy in Wikipedia is always this: Why didn’t you fix it? Because, you know, you had the power to do so.

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