Wales at SXSW; lawsuit over Wikipedia PR editing

In the media

Wales at SXSW; lawsuit over Wikipedia PR editing

Wales and Kawasaki on stage at South by Southwest

Jimmy Wales appeared at the 2016 South by Southwest Interactive festival on March 13, where he was interviewed by Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees member Guy Kawasaki. Outgoing WMF executive director Lila Tretikov was originally slated to appear at the event, but she was quietly replaced by Wales on the schedule following her resignation.

The wide-ranging discussion touched on a number of topics. PC Magazine took note of comments on the FBI–Apple encryption dispute ("I'm really proud of Apple for fighting this thing"), Chinese censorship of Wikipedia ("I'm ready to wait 1,000 years. I'd rather the Chinese people understand what's happening to them when they understand that the government won't let them view any of the Wikipedia pages."), and problems in the Wikipedia editing community ("[W]e may be too tolerant of bad behavior. We want women to participate more."). TechCrunch highlighted Wales' strong comments on paid editing: "Companies think it’s a powerful marketing tool but I think they’re deranged and should leave us alone." However, Wales did note that "The top PR companies tend to be very good about their interactions with Wikipedia". Business Insider recounted an anecdote about Wikipedia's beginnings: "As a programming geek, I wrote 'Hello World' and those were the first words of Wikipedia." G

Talk page comments a factor in PR lawsuit

Julie Meyer, founder of Ariadne Capital

Wikipedia is playing a central role in a lawsuit between a London venture capital firm, Ariadne Capital, and a public relations agency, Lansons Communications. Business Insider reported that Ariadne charged that a "botched attempt to improve" the Wikipedia article for Ariadne founder Julie Meyer "did its reputation more harm than good." Bloomberg News reported that Ariadne claimed Lansons' attempts at addressing the Wikipedia article resulted in accusations that Ariadne had attempted to "manipulate its own entry" and prompted "further negative updates on Wikipedia." The lawsuit charged that "this has caused and will cause further reputational damage which has led to lost opportunities and income."

The lawsuit alleges that an email was sent to "Wikipedia" and this email was posted on Talk:Julie Meyer. There is a message on that page signed by a self-identified Lansons employee, posted in 2014 by a London-based IP address. It seems unlikely that a Wikimedia Foundation employee or an OTRS volunteer would post a secondhand email to a talk page at all, much less using an IP address instead of their own account. It seems more likely that this "email" was actually a talk page message from that employee himself.

Regardless of the origin of the message, it is a sticking point in the lawsuit. Meyer told Bloomberg "To have an intern contact Wikipedia was not what we paid for". Lansons co-founder Tony Langham told Bloomberg it was "a joke lawsuit" prompted by Lansons' demand that Ariadne pay their "outstanding invoices". (Mar. 14) G

In brief

The fourth anniversary of Bassel Khartabil's detention is being marked by protests on 19 March in London (Marble Arch, 2pm), Paris, Berlin and other cities throughout the world, calling for his immediate release. Part of the campaign is a #WhereIsBassel Twitter hashtag.

Sorry about that: The Daily Dot lists encyclopedias as one of the "10 Industries the Internet completely and utterly ruined". Wikipedia's "takeover" of encyclopedia usage resulted in the end of the print publication of the Encyclopedia Britannica in 2012. They note "People will almost always side with free over somewhere around $1400". (Mar. 19) G
Bell Pottinger in the news again: Business Day reports that the Gupta family, a prominent South African business family, has hired the British public relations firm Bell Pottinger to "burnish its image". Bell Pottinger has been criticized previously for its Wikipedia editing on behalf of its clients and numerous accounts used by the agency were blocked (see previous Signpost coverage). (Mar. 19) G
Challenges for Indian languages: In The Wire, Wikimedia Foundation employee Subhashish Panigrahi discusses "Eight Challenges That Indian-Language Wikipedias Need to Overcome". (Mar. 17) G
RepRap: 3DPrint.com discusses the editing conflict currently ongoing at the article RepRap project, which they characterize as "more like vandalism than editing". Naturally, other editors at the article have a different perspective, with one describing it as removing "promotionalism". Discussion is ongoing at the article talk page and ANI. (Mar. 17) G
#whereisBassel?: In The Guardian, Jimmy Wales and Orit Kopel, CEO of the Jimmy Wales Foundation for Freedom of Expression, call again for the release of Wikimedian and web activist Bassel Khartabil, imprisoned by the Syrian government since 2012. The article is titled, "Jimmy Wales: 'The world needs to ask: #WhereisBassel?'", promoting the corresponding Twitter hashtag. (Mar. 16) G/AK
Merrick Garland: Wired discusses the "battle to save facts from politics" at the article for new US Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland. (Mar. 16) G
The momentum of tiny edits: The Atlantic asks, "Why are some Wikipedia articles so long?", reporting that "Among the top-50 longest articles on the English language version Wikipedia, you'll find lists of comets, Amtrak stations, shipwrecks, fictional astronauts, and cult films. There is a timeline of Baltimore and a look at electric car use by country, along with articles about firearms, Dutch inventions, and rare birds." (Mar. 16) AK
The age of Wikipedia wars: An opinion piece by Annika Hernroth-Rothstein in Israel Hayom, commenting on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, argues that "The media likes to focus on the war that is being waged with knives and guns and tanks, but today the most furious fight is being fought in the new media arena, where everyone is a soldier and no one has a name. However scary this may seem, it also brings hope to our cause -- it means that anyone can get involved and make a mark in the fight for truth and freedom. This is a Wikipedia war in that the facts need to be checked and rechecked by every man and the winner will be the side that manages to sweep the masses in this reality of intellectual sharing." (Mar. 15) AK
GCHQ embedded in Wikipedia?: Craig Murray, a former British ambassador to Uzbekistan and ex-Rector of the University of Dundee (2007–10), asks, "Is GCHQ Embedded in Wikipedia?", focusing on the Wikipedia contributions of Philip Cross. (GCHQ is the UK's Government Communications Headquarters.) This was followed by a number of exchanges on Twitter between Murray and Cross (the latter has declared his Twitter account on his Wikipedia user page). (Mar. 15) AK
Keilana FTW: Keilana's story, covered in-depth in last week's In the Media, attracted further coverage from numerous media sites, eventually being picked up by the BBC, The Telegraph and The Guardian, which also features an interview with Rosiestep. (Mar 14–19). AK
Improved search: The Next Web notes the recent improvements to Wikipedia Search. (Mar. 11) AK

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16 March 2016 (all comments)

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Kawasaki and Wales? Hm. No better than Kawasaki and Tretlikov, ie: WP:COI. Pointless. - Sitush (talk) 01:43, 20 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Page length is a serious issue and it's great that someone finally noticed and wrote about it. With the rise of mobile this will only get to be more and more annoying. Jane (talk) 08:09, 21 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]

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