Wikipedia Needs a New Entry for “Background Check”

Ah, Wikipedia. Lucky for you it's a long holiday weekend because this latest debacle may not hit many people's radar. However, it's time that you figure out that not all people are nice, not all people are honest, and sometimes, other people already know that. All you have to do is ask them.

Wikipedia is no stranger to fraudulent backgrounds; remember the mess back in February when it was discovered one of their most prominent editors was faking it? You'd think, after the PR nightmare that was, they'd have learned that if you can't trust the volunteers, maybe EVERYONE should take a turn under the microscope.

Either Jimmy Wales really wears some rose-colored glasses, or he isn't sure how to run an organization. Proof being that Wikimedia's former COO, Carolyn Bothwell Doran, was on probation for a 2004 hit-and-run. When The Register checked into her background, they discovered past charges of writing bad checks, theft, and oh, a little thing like shooting her boyfriend in the chest. Isn't that just the person any Board of Directors would want to be responsible for personnel and financial management? This is the person who was signing their tax returns, which showed $1.3 million in donations last year.

Wales' message to the Wikipedia community was laughable:

“We are very saddened and hurt by these shocking revelations. Of course we are doing soul searching about what we could have done different.”

Soul searching? How about a simple background check? Checking references? This is someone who started out as a bookkeeper sent by a temp agency and somehow ended up as COO. NO ONE bothered to do any of this before voting her in as COO in a BoD vote of 6-1?

Google may not even need to push Knols as a competitor to Wikipedia, because at the rate Wikimedia is piling up trainwrecks, there needs to be a total overhaul in order to maintain its position. Because it's hard to be taken seriously as a reliable source of information when the people working for you, either in a paid or volunteer capacity, aren't reliable themselves.