Floyd Landis Tries The Wikipedia Defense

from the wikis-against-doping dept

Fri, Oct 13th 2006 9:58am — Joseph Weisenthal

In his ongoing bid to retain his Tour De France title, alleged doper Floyd Landis has taken to the web. Earlier this week, he announced he would put his complete defense online for all to see and mull over. But simply posting some documents online isn't in itself all that impressive. What's interesting is that in addition to this, Landis has been engaging with online communities and message boards comprised of people who are interested in the case. These include avid cyclists, as well as people who are experts in forensic chemistry, law, statistics, and other fields that might relate. It's his hope that the internet will provide a mechanism for people with disparate knowledge to craft and articulate a strong defense for him. Landis himself calls it the "Wikipedia defense". Obviously, executing the Wikipedia defense might have some challenges, and online message boards might not be the best way for people to work together (perhaps he should actually put up a wiki). But it'll be an interesting experiment nonetheless into how an argument or legal defense can be a developed by a loose-knit group with a common interest.

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24 Comments

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Donald Duck, 13 Oct 2006 @ 10:48am

Cheaper then law firms
That is cheaper then law firms. I would think that some great ideas would come out and didn't martha use the internet to pled her side of her case. I see no difference and his ideas probably wasn't reported by the news media in the light in which he wish it was. That's why he is going to the internet.
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Oct 2006 @ 11:03am

THAN. THAN LAW FIRMS
If you choose to use English in your posts rather THAN your native language please earn some proficiency so that you can communicate your thoughts accurately. Thanks.
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Aaron, 13 Oct 2006 @ 11:05am

Just like the Netflix story a few days ago, this speaks to the power of the crowd, even if they don't necessarily have a direct stake in the outcome.

Small contributions from a lot of people work just as well (if not better) than large contributions by a few. This is the idea behind many open source software projects, that even if somebody's not getting paid, they can and will contribute in thier field of expertise.

There's absolutely no reason for it to be confined to the software model, and it really never has been. Mastercard used it in advertizing. That it can go into the legal/PR field is not surprising at all.
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deceptivegenius, 13 Oct 2006 @ 11:06am

Re: THAN. THAN LAW FIRMS
wow.....are you serious?
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Daniel (profile), 13 Oct 2006 @ 11:07am

Specialists and specialized knowledge.
It's a novel idea and certainly should produce a lot of good suggestions for directions he can take for his defense, but I would look for a REALLY good attorney to head up and guide my defense if I were in his position. While Wikipedia is a great reference overall, once you go in depth, you need to get past the crowd and go with someone who lives the process.

Another analogy to this would be in the world of chess. Kasparov has - on occasion - played "the world vs Kasparov" chess games, where the collective knowledge of everyone goes against him. Although they typically produce good games, he STILL wins.
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Oct 2006 @ 11:23am

Re: Re: THAN. THAN LAW FIRMS
Yes. You see, I have very small genitals and breasts, so I try to make myself feel better by nitpicking grammar in blog comments.
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MEoip, 13 Oct 2006 @ 11:34am

Good
He has a really good attorney... and really good innocence
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teknosapien, 13 Oct 2006 @ 11:37am

seems as though this could go both ways he could get really practical information .. or he could get a bunch of bogus crap
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Royalpeasantry, 13 Oct 2006 @ 11:49am

Re: THAN. THAN LAW FIRMS
I'd love to see you become fluent in a foreign language.
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micky, 13 Oct 2006 @ 11:58am

Re:Re: THAN. THAN LAW FIRMS
Come on... He's a Duck! The fact he can type is amazing enough!
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Bill, 13 Oct 2006 @ 12:01pm

THAN
Hey! cluelessone!

"communicate your thoughts accurately"

The thoughts were accurate. Everyone knew exactly what the poster meant.

While you, who may have used perfect grammer but poor logic.
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Just Me?, 13 Oct 2006 @ 12:11pm

Looks familiar
It seems to me that there are some parallels to open source development.
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deceptivegenius, 13 Oct 2006 @ 12:14pm

Re: Re: Re: THAN. THAN LAW FIRMS
hahaha! i knew it!
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Drawoc Soumynona, 13 Oct 2006 @ 12:37pm

Re: THAN. THAN LAW FIRMS
"earn some proficiency"?

Who awards proficiency points?
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EdB, 13 Oct 2006 @ 12:44pm

I say give the medals to those willing to go the extra mile. If you're not willing to shoot up to win then you deserve to lose. Floyd's a loser because he didn't dope intelligently.
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Brian, 13 Oct 2006 @ 1:19pm

Dirty Biking...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJnYVm4iaqc
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Joker, 13 Oct 2006 @ 1:21pm

Re: THAN. THAN LAW FIRMS
What is your native language??
Is it "earn" or "learn"?
Or do you just have nothing better to do than to pick apart grammer mistakes?

What was this article about?
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trust but verify, 13 Oct 2006 @ 1:42pm

Actually relevant...
Linked this into my roundup of Landis stuff at trust but verify. I disagree about setting up a 'real' wiki compared to reusing daily peloton forum. There is an existing, vital community there that would be hard to replicate at a new site.
He has real legal help. This is both an extra set of input, and a way of working out how to explain the (eventual) story to the public. The battle is 1/2 legal, and 1/2 public relations (assuming he wins). Engaging the internet folks at a grassroots level is part of a long-term PR strategy that makes sense to me.
TBV
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Don Gray, 13 Oct 2006 @ 2:03pm

Re:
For the most part I agree with you.

The addiitonal thing I will point out is that every successful open source project I can think of has either one person or a VERY SMALL group of people that provide vision, direction, and discipline to the project.

Without a sheperd the sheep tend to wander aimlessl.
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Jo Mamma, 13 Oct 2006 @ 2:38pm

Re: THAN. THAN LAW FIRMS
SWEET JESUS MAN!

I am extremely annoyed when little whiny, bitchy adolescent types post to boards, WITH oveously n0 brians in they're h3ad but I think ragging on an intelligent person because English is not their primary language is a little harsh.

As long as they can form understandable sentences and make good points, I personally welcome the contribution.

You should probably consider going back to your mom’s basement and back on /.
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16" taint, 13 Oct 2006 @ 7:00pm

I have a Huge Taint
My Taint it 16 inches long Someone Play with it
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11" taint, 13 Oct 2006 @ 10:45pm

I thought I had a Huge Taint
Man, you just destroyed me. I Prided myself on my almost foot-long Taint. Now you've taken that from me. Why you gotta make me feel inferior like that, B ?
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Donald Duck, 14 Oct 2006 @ 3:26am

I can waste my time on you D*** H**D
I've read many of your stupid post before Anonymous Coward and it seems to me that you want to be the first poster in all of these techdirt blogs.

Since you were not this time you found a spelling error and made fun of me. You have all kinds of grammar problems I can point them all out but that would waste my time.

One post you typed in ADVISE instead of the word ADVICE.
Where was your proficiency in that sentence?
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satan, 14 Oct 2006 @ 5:30pm

what's the prob
what's the prob, my old man has high testosterone levels,
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