Wikipedia asylum input?
By Shalini Singh

An Ethiopian woman Lamilem Badasa flees to the United States and asks for asylum based on the civil war and persecution of some sections in her country. Lamilem was offering an Ethiopian travel document known as ‘Laissez-passer’ as proof of her identity.

So how did the American Government’s Department of Home Security, equipped with hundreds of billions of dollars of resources, decide her case?  The Department used Wikipedia to get important inputs on why her travel document should be rejected and consequently her plea for asylum.

The woman appealed and the US Circuit Court of Appeals has found in her favour that Wikipedia is not a sufficiently reliable resource in what may be matters of life and death.

Makes sense, does it not?  The lines are being drawn on how far important institutions can use Wikipedia which can be edited by many people.