Communications Major

The encyclopedia’s main Ebola article has had 17 million page views in the last month, rivaling pages from the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The editors of Wikipedia’s Ebola page say they earned a place as one of those credible sources. To protect against misinformation, potential editors must suggest adds or changes to the article on a separately maintained page, where editors review them and decide whether to incorporate them.

Santiago Swallow may be one of the most famous people no one has heard of. His eyes fume from his Twitter profile: he is Hollywood-handsome. Next to his name is one of social media’s most prized possessions, Twitter’s blue “verified account” checkmark. Beneath it are numbers to make many in the online world jealous: Santiago Swallow has tens of thousands of followers. The tweets Swallow sends them are cryptic nuggets of wisdom that unroll like scrolls from digital fortune cookies: “Before you lose weight, find hope,” says one. Another: “To write is to live endlessly.”

And, of course, he isn't real. But rather the figment of one very creative writer's imagination - and $68, which is all it took to get Santiago Swallow up and running.