Millionth article, millionth user

The million article milestone reached by Wikipedia on 1 March (see related story), with an article on Jordanhill railway station in Scotland, was reported in:

• "Suburban station secures its place in internet history" The Herald (Glasgow)
• "West end station makes its mark online" Glasgow Evening Times
• "Wikipedia racks up 1 million articles" News.com
• "Wikipedia racks up one million articles" ZDNet
• "Millionth English article posted on Wikipedia" Macworld
• "Wikipedia Hits the Million Article Mark" Search Engine Journal
• "Wikipedia Hits One Million Articles" Digital Lifestyles
• "Millionth English article posted on Wikipedia" IT World
• "Wikipedia Publishes Its Millionth Article", Daily Tech

Even before the millionth article was created, The Guardian remarked on the millionth registered user, in "Wikipedia hits the million mark".

The Toronto Star also published an extensive article on Wikipedia, based on an interview conducted with Jimmy Wales and Nicholas Moreau before the milestone was reached: "A million entries later, the Wikigeeks are proud".

More Jimmy Wales interviews

• "Co-founder has learned to roll with the punches" National Post (Canada)
  • Accompanying story: "Wikipedia.com near milestone" [sic] (subscription required)
• "Wikipedia exec defends process" Rocky Mountain News (Colorado)

Interesting mentions

On the 1 March, 2006, episode of The Colbert Report, columnist Arianna Huffington challenged Stephen Colbert on his claim that he had invented the word "truthiness." During the interview, Colbert declared, "I'm not a truthiness fanatic; I'm truthiness's father." Huffington corrected him, citing Wikipedia, that he had merely "popularized" the term. Of her source, Colbert responded: "Fuck them."

A new registry for establishing which print works are in the public domain will use MediaWiki software, and is supported by Jimbo Wales, according to "Database planned for public domain works" in Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail:

"The public domain is our shared cultural heritage, and the best ground for the great new ideas of the future'" said Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales. "Without access to the public domain, we are cut off from our past, and therefore cut ourselves off from our future."

Chemistry World, the journal of the Royal Society of Chemistry, published "Information free-for-all", following an interview with Martin Walker (Walkerma), assistant professor of organic chemistry at the State University of New York at Potsdam.

The online encyclopaedia Wikipedia could become the main source of chemical information in 5–10 years, according to a professional chemist who contributes to the site.

Wikipedia in your pocket

An open source project has made it possible to install the entire text of certain language editions of Wikipedia onto an iPod media player. A straightforward dual boot installation of iPodLinux allows the player to be used for both text and music, although not both at the same time. "Encyclopodia - the encyclopedia on your iPod", at Sourceforge, contains downloads and screenshots. The news was reported by:

• "WikiPedia for iPods", Macworld
• "Wikipedia on the iPod - Encyclopodia WikiPodia?", Search Engine Journal
• The whole Wikipedia in your pocket (on ipod), Digg (over 3,000 "diggs")

There are similar technologies for Pocket PC and Palm devices ("Complete Wikipedia Encyclopedia on your handheld or notebook") and for cellular phones ("Wapipedia").

More attention from marketers

WebProNews published "SEM NY: Communities, Wikipedia & Tagging", discussing a presentation given at a search engine marketing conference in New York. Regarding companies editing their own articles in Wikipedia:

Since the conversation about a company is going to take place online whether the company is participating or not, [National Instruments search and community manager Jeff] Watts thinks that a firm may as well be involved in the process. "Think about the things you know about and engage the community with unbiased information," he said.

Wikipedia benefits LabVIEW [an article started by Watts] by the traffic it delivers and the third-party objective viewpoint it possesses. That means information it contains about a firm may be unflattering but accurate, and companies need to resist the temptation to remove it.

Congress

• "Rep. Marshall is hit by GOP Wikipedia changes", The Hill (re Jim Marshall)
• "Not exactly Watergate, but ...", Denver Post editorial

Overviews

• "Is Wikipedia error prone?" Deccan Herald (India)
• "Site throws schools a Wiki'd curve" Indianapolis Star (Indiana)
• "Wikipedia world: Online reference site blurs fact/fiction line" Lansing State Journal (Michigan)