William Connolley

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William Michael Connolley (born 12 April 1964) is a retired British software engineer, writer, and blogger on climatology. Until December 2007 he was Senior Scientific Officer in the Physical Sciences Division in the Antarctic Climate and the Earth System project at the British Antarctic Survey, where he worked as a climate modeller. After that he became a software engineer for Cambridge Silicon Radio.

Connolley received national press attention over several years for his involvement in editing Wikipedia articles relating to climate change. Connolley was a member of the RealClimate website until 2007 and now operates a website and blog that discuss climate issues. He has also been active in local politics as a member of the Green Party.

Background

Connolley holds an undergraduate degree in mathematics and a DPhil from St Edmund Hall at the University of Oxford for his work on numerical analysis.<ref>Template:Cite thesis</ref> He works as a software engineer for Cambridge Silicon Radio, designing embedded firmware.<ref>Connolley, William. About Page Stoat Blog</ref>

Until December 2007, Connolley was Senior Scientific Officer in the Physical Sciences Division in the Antarctic Climate and the Earth System project at the British Antarctic Survey. His research focused on sea ice measurement and modelling, including the HadCM3 global climate model (GCM). Connolley also worked on the validation of satellite data against more direct upward looking sonar observations in the Weddell Sea area.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=Concentrations>Template:Cite web</ref> He concluded that Bootstrap data produced a better fit than data produced by NASA and that GCM predictions are more realistic than previously thought.<ref name=Concentrations/>

Connolley served as a parish councillor in the village of Coton (near Cambridge, England) until May 2007.<ref>Internet Archive copy of Coton Parish Website</ref> He was also a Green Party candidate for South Cambridgeshire District Council and Cambridgeshire County Council.<ref>The Green Party South Cambs Template:Webarchive</ref>

Writing and editing

Connolley has authored and co-authored articles and literature reviews in the field of climatological research, with an emphasis on the climate of the Antarctic and the study of sea ice.<ref>See for example, Template:Cite journal</ref> Connolley was a member of the RealClimate website until 2007,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Connolley, William (1 December 2007). "Goodbye to all that" – announcement of departure from RealClimate. RealClimate. Retrieved 26 October 2010.</ref> and he operates a website and blog that discuss climate issues.<ref>Stoat Taking science by the throat... Connolley's personal blog</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> His blogs and one of his papers conclude that a majority of scientific papers in the 1970s predicted warming, not global cooling.<ref name=NoCooling>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Christian Science Monitor noted in 2007 that on Connolley's "personal website, and as a contributor to RealClimate.org (a website written and edited by working climate scientists), he's authored a number of articles that try to clarify the place of global cooling in the history of science" and commented, "Connolley and Schneider say that if the public had looked directly at the peer-reviewed scientific papers, and not at the popular media coverage, they would not have found any basis for a global-cooling scare."<ref>Azios, Tony. "Global-warming skeptics: Is it only the news media who need to chill?" The Christian Science Monitor, 11 October 2007, accessed 24 May 2011</ref>

Wikipedia editing

Connolley began editing Wikipedia in 2003<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and served as a Wikipedia administrator from 2006 until 2009.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He has been cited and quoted in the media regarding these activities, especially with respect to his editing in the area of climate change. He was cited by Nature magazine, in their December 2005 review of the reliability of Wikipedia, as an example of an expert who edits Wikipedia.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Nature quoted Connolley, in 2006, as saying that "some scientists have become frustrated with Wikipedia" but that "conflict can sometimes result in better articles".<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

No weight given to subject matter experts

In July 2006, a New Yorker article described him as briefly becoming "a victim of an edit war over the entry on global warming", in which a sceptic repeatedly "watered down" the article's explanation of the greenhouse effect.<ref name="Schiff_2006-07-31_nyorker">Template:Cite magazine</ref> Connolley told the magazine that Wikipedia "gives no privilege to those who know what they're talking about".<ref name="Schiff_2006-07-31_nyorker" /> Various books have cited Connolley as an example of how expert editors on Wikipedia are given "no more credence" than anonymous editors of the site.<ref>Rosen, Larry D., Mark Carrier and Nancy A. Cheever. Rewired: Understanding the iGeneration and the Way They Learn, p. 120, Macmillan (2010) Template:ISBN</ref><ref>Tammet, Daniel. Embracing the Wide Sky: A Tour Across the Horizons of the Mind, p. 206, Simon and Schuster (2009) Template:ISBN</ref><ref>Keen, Andrew. The Cult of the Amateur: How Today’s Internet is Killing Our Culture, p. 43, New York: Doubleday (2007) Template:ISBN</ref> In 2007, The Sunday Times of London ran an interview of author Andrew Keen that discussed Connolley and his Wikipedia editing. It identified Connolley as "an expert on global warming", stating: "After trying to correct inaccuracies Connolley was accused of trying to remove 'any point of view which does not match his own'. Eventually he was limited to making just one edit a day." The article stated that Wikipedia's Arbitration Committee "gave no weight to [Connolley's] expertise, and treated him with the same credibility as his anonymous opponent."<ref>Flintoff, John-Paul. "According to Wikipedia I'm the Mona Lisa", The Sunday Times, 3 June 2007, News Review p. 3</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Alleged abuse of administrative privileges

Two internal disputes at Wikipedia in which Connolley was involved received additional attention. A 2005 Wikipedia climate change dispute involving breaches of etiquette, rather than content bias, was cited by a paper in the Journal of Science Communication as an example that "resonated deeply as it highlighted what can befall respected experts who wade into controversial wiki-waters". The paper stated that Connolley did "not suffer...fools gladly".<ref name="crowdsourcing">Mathieu O'Neil: "Shirky and Sanger, or the costs of crowdsourcing". Journal of Science Communication, Vol. 9, Issue 1, March 2010, International School for Advanced Studies</ref>

The same paper noted a 2009 Wikipedia arbitration in which it was concluded that Connolley had used administrator privileges to his own advantage in content disputes,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>Template:Circular reference and these privileges were removed.<ref name="crowdsourcing" /> Other academic papers have discussed Connolley's editing activities on Wikipedia and the dispute resolution process as it has been applied to him.<ref>See, e.g., Template:Cite book and the papers cited therein</ref>

Personal life

Connolley has two children.<ref>"William Michael Connolley" website. wmconnolley.org, accessed 14 May 2011</ref>

Selected publications

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See also

References

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