Just when it can’t get any stupider. Carolyn Doran, Wikipedia’s now former Chief Operating Officer, is a felon.
For more than six months, beginning in January of this year, Wikipedia’s million-dollar check book was balanced by a convicted felon.
When Carolyn Bothwell Doran was hired as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the Florida-based Wikimedia Foundation, she had a criminal record in three other states – Virginia, Maryland, and Texas – and she was still on parole for a DUI (driving under the influence of alcohol) hit and run that resulted in a fatality.
Her record also included convictions for passing bad checks, theft, petty larceny, additional DUIs, and unlawfully wounding her boyfriend with a gun shot to the chest.
Much more in the article. Wikinews, Wikipedia’s own news service, even has an article called “Chief Operating Officer of Wikimedia Foundation was convicted felon“.
UPDATE 7am 12-14-07: It’s on Digg now. Still hasn’t crossed major news media besides Yahoo! UK news here, but it just broke late last night Pacific time. If this gets wide coverage, it will be a few days, because other news sources will need to review it. If it hits a wire service like AP or Reuters, it’s all over.





