Not Quite a Blog

Well, I've always wondered how disputes are resolved on Wikipedia... looks like I'm finding out in practice. Among other things, A Wikipedian has recently threatened to send email to Hal Varian, the former dean of the SoI, about my conduct. It's pretty baffling that someone would think that they could affect my behavior (which has been polite and sincere) in one forum by grasping for something they're more familiar with in another forum. Further, it's hilarious as I had been trying to mediate the dispute. I can't imagine a world in which Hal would give a shit one way or another.

[UPDATE 2006-03-11T11:27:13]: So, it appears that the Wikipedian I allude to above has taken the liberty to contact Anno Hal! The nerve! His argument makes little sense, but is an interesting read from the perspective of an academic who's interested in wikipedia. As I say above, the only reason I'm involved in this dispute was an initial attempt at mediation. I've included the text of the email he sent below the fold (for those not interested).

[UPDATE 2006-03-20T18:13:40]: Well, he's now produced a 67-page comment on the dispute and is demanding $150 from me and $300 from the other student involved! The comment document makes for interesting reading (at least the beginning of it) as he relates my being upset with him contacting Anno to 800 million starving people.

Follow up:

March 11, 2006

Dear professors Hockfield and Varian, Dear Hal,

I have a problem on the integrity of science with two of your students, Rob Speer at MIT who started the problem, and Joseph Lorenzo Hall at SIMS who is interfering in an unhelpful way. The problem is summarized in the appendix.

Obviously, the integrity of science is a difficult subject even for academics so there must be a great deal of tolerance with students. With students, they certainly cannot be held accountable as scientists can, and they are only learning the trade. Yet, students e.g. know that one cannot cheat a test and that one must study a topic before one gives conclusions on it. When issues of integrity arise, it can be very educational for them to have the issue discussed. In this case, these two students would learn a lot about scientific conduct and scientific integrity.

In the present case, the issue is on the behaviour of these students on the internet, in particular wikipedia. It appears that communication with these students is greatly hindered by that environment, which does not allow the quality of deliberation provided by a personal chat with a person that they respect. My reason to contact you is to ask you to find a teacher or counselor at your school to have that chat.

It is to be considered whether the activity of those students within wikipedia is related to their life as students at your schools. My impression is that this relation exists. Firstly, they present themselves on their wikipedia pages as students of MIT and SIMS, thus partly referring to those institutions and their education there, implying their relation to you. Secondly, they are active in editing work, where they refer to learned books and where they use difficult words. Their behaviour thus cannot be strictly separated from their education and prospective position as scientists. This is most clearly so with Joseph Lorenzo Hall who is already a Ph.D. student who thus must write scientific papers for the journals. For Rob Speer, who started the problem, it can be observed that his education on computing science is relevant for the topic where the problem arose.

In the end, it is with students similar as with academics: An academic can still be a good academic “professionally” even if he or she steals roses from the neighbours or tells gossips to friends in church, but, the expectation would be that that behaviour would not occur. The expectation would be decent behaviour, worthy of an intended graduate or doctor, especially when the integrity of science is involved.

The relation to your school also arises directly from the nature of their misconduct. When a student behaves badly in an area that he sees as distinct from his education, it can be educational to him or her to be reminded that this behaviour does not fit a graduate, for which the very education is intended. As said, I kindly ask you to find a teacher or counselor within your institution to discuss matters on a personal level with those students. I already tried to explain it to them via the contact that is provided by the internet, but this didn’t help, and my hope is that such a talk on a personal level would help them to see the problem.

Unfortunately, the student Rob Speer only provided the co-ordinate “a senior at MIT studying computer science and music” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Rspeer) and explicitly refused to give a name and email address of his professor. There appear different organizations dealing with computer science at MIT, so I can only write to the President, professor Hockfield, with the polite request to forward this issue to the appropriate person. To my relief, though, I noted a speech by professor Hockfield where she discussed academic integrity, in the case of two scientists at Lincoln Laboratory, so I have been confirmed that integrity has her attention.

The Ph. D. student Joseph Lorenzo Hall can be identified via http://josephhall.org/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:..., ...@berkeley.edu. At the present, SIMS is smaller than MIT, so I suppose that professorVarian can identify this student with some ease.

Both students have been informed of this letter, via the email addresses on their webpages.

For the information of professor Hockfield I may add that I had brief contact with professor Varian some years ago, notably on his economics programs for Mathematica and my Economics Pack, applications of Mathematica. (This Pack has decent quality. Once I sold via a third party, Wolfram Research Inc., but they resold unexpectedly to other resellers, halving my margin, so I had to stop that outlet.) Professor Hockfield might also inquire with professor Blanchard at MIT, since he once gave a lecture in Holland and met me; though it seems he hasn’t had time yet to study my work, so I mention his name only with great hesitation.

Respectfully yours,

Thomas Cool / Thomas Colignatus
http://www.dataweb.nl/~cool
...@dataweb.nl