As I was following the unfolding of the story of Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Twitter, I followed a link to a BBC News article. There I learned that the alleged attacker had been charged with attempting to destroy the aircraft, and that the alleged explosive device used the explosive PETN.
So, being my curious self, I looked up PETN on Wikipedia. And I discovered that the page for PETN, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentaerythritol_tetranitrate, had been updated with links to a page for the “current event”, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwest_Airlines_Flight_253. And once I got there, I discovered a link to another page for the suspected attacker, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umar_Farouk_Abdulmuttalab! I should add that the page for Abdulmuttalab “is being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedia’s deletion policy.”
So there you have it. A story is unfolding in real time in real life, in the “more traditional media” like the BBC News, real-time social media like Twitter, and now, as a current event on Wikipedia. So I ask, “Is citizen journalism becoming citizen historianship?” I’ve opened up comments on this blog for the moment to allow discussion of this subject. Spammers will, of course, be dealt with.
