The Editors

“Strikingly relevant" [Taylor Lorenz], The Editors is a thriller that reveals the battles behind the internet's most contested information source: Wikipedia.

Aim for Neutrality. We Need Better Sources. Anonymity is Fundamental. Keep Developing.

The editors know these principles. The editors follow them every day – usually. The editors may not be recognized on the street, but they craft the information that is seen on nearly every internet search. Through Infopendium, a global, crowd-sourced internet encyclopedia, the editors influence the world.

Freelance journalist Morgan Wentworth, recently laid off from PopFeed News, attends the Global Infopendium Conference in New York expecting a straightforward story to help pay the rent. But the so-called “pendium people” are full of surprises. PhDs rub shoulders with high school students, all quoting the project’s rules and regulations like a second language. Sure, millions of people see the facts curated by these editors, but who really cares about the free encyclopedia?

When a hacker attacks the conference and posts a cryptic message, it becomes clear that somebody does. And Morgan decides to find out who. But the path through an online information war is far from clear. Foreign governments, billionaires, and a global virus threaten to sway the truth on Infopendium.

And far from Morgan’s sight, in places as different as Beijing and Kansas, some of the editors have plans of their own . . .

Stephen Harrison is a writer and tech lawyer. His fiction and nonfiction pieces have appeared in the New York Times, The Washington Post, WIRED, and Slate magazine. For the past five years, he has penned the column "Source Notes" about Wikipedia and the world of facts on the internet. He lives in Dallas.