Media reports last week focused on a new project from Chinese search engine company Baidu, which has taken advantage of the blocking of Wikipedia in mainland China to offer its own encyclopedia catering to that country. This encyclopedia borrows heavily from Wikipedia, but censors the content in accordance with the laws of the People's Republic of China.
Baidu's stock, which is traded on the NASDAQ exchange, spiked upward last Tuesday after the company posted an increase in its quarterly profit and made a statement anticipating strong revenue growth. The financial press picked up on this news and also made note of the recent launch of Baidu Baike, its encyclopedia site originally started 20 April. Widespread subsequent reports in the general media tended to focus primarily on this encyclopedia and draw comparisons to Wikipedia.
Although some headlines went so far as to call it a "Chinese Wikipedia", Baidu Baike is neither a Wikipedia (that term being a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation) nor even really a wiki. It does allow user submissions, but these are moderated before being posted as part of the site's general adherence to PRC restrictions on internet content. The effect might more accurately be compared to Encarta, which introduced an "edit" option for its readers last year in which changes are reviewed by Encarta editors (see archived story).
The Baidu Baike home page now reports a number of over 120,000 articles, less than a month after the site's launch. This is already nearly double the number of articles in the Chinese Wikipedia, access to which remains blocked in mainland China. In order to build this content base, Baidu has apparently copied from a number of sources, not just the Chinese Wikipedia, and including some unusual choices (one Wikipedia editor reported that it was also taking content from the Uncyclopedia parody site).
The media coverage prompted extensive discussion among Wikipedia editors about the situation, including what to do about the block as well as whether Baidu Baike was violating Wikipedia license terms and how this should be dealt with. Jimmy Wales reiterated the position that the block of Wikipedia is an error on the part of those responsible. Regarding the copying, he observed that Baidu is welcome to copy from Wikipedia if it complies with the license terms. He added that many Wikipedia mirror sites make mistakes in this regard initially, but can change as they learn how to improve this.
Developer Tim Starling noted that the publicity blitz appeared to coincide with a crackdown on some of the circumvention methods that have allowed internet users in mainland China to access Wikipedia in spite of the block. Wales said the Wikimedia Foundation "neither encourages nor discourages" efforts to get around the block.
Wikimedia Deutschland e.V., the German chapter organization affiliated with the Wikimedia Foundation, announced on Friday that it had won in the final court ruling over whether deceased hacker Tron (Boris Floricic) could be named in the German Wikipedia. The Berlin district court hearing an appeal by Tron's parents rejected their complaint, concluding that neither Tron's post-mortem rights nor those of the parents were violated. This brings an end to the litigation, as no further avenues of appeal remain.
Tron's parents had originally filed their lawsuit in December 2005, partly at the urging of Andy Müller-Maguhn, a member of the Chaos Computer Club (with which Tron was also affiliated). They argued that publishing Tron's real name, as opposed to merely his alias, violated his personal rights (in German, Persönlichkeitsrecht, which includes privacy rights), along with those of Tron's father who shares the same surname.
At one point in January, the court issued a preliminary injunction calling for the removal of the name and requiring Wikimedia Deutschland to cease directing people from its domain (www.wikipedia.de) to the German Wikipedia (de.wikipedia.org). This led to widespread erroneous reports in the media that the German Wikipedia had been shut down. In reality, it remained available throughout and the injunction itself was soon suspended. The court then ruled in favor of the Wikimedia chapter, leading to the now-concluded appeal.
The court decided that publishing the name was legal and did not infringe on any rights Tron might still have after his death. It also concluded that the rights of other parties such as his parents were not violated. Thorsten Feldmann, lawyer for Wikimedia Deutschland, said, "We feel that the court completely confirmed the legal position we have held from the outset."
Also, the chapter has announced the appointment of Arne Klempert to serve as business executive (Geschäftsführer) and be in charge of the chapter's physical office, to be opened in Frankfurt later this year. As planned at its annual meeting in February, the chapter expects to open its new headquarters in October. Klempert was chosen from a field of 65 applicants after two rounds of interviews. Previously one of the members of the chapter's board, he took a leave of absence from his seat on the board in order to apply for the position.
In other news involving Wikimedia chapter organizations, a new chapter has been formed in Switzerland. In a meeting held in Olten on Sunday, 14 May, members representing the French, German, and Italian-speaking regions of the country adopted the chapter's bylaws and selected its initial board. The chapter is planning to hold a Swiss Wikipedia Day in Zürich on 17 June.
Wikimania recap
28 August 2006
Wikimania recap
14 August 2006
Wikimania recap
7 August 2006
Wikimania last-minute information
31 July 2006
Events: Contests, parties, and the local area
24 July 2006
Wikimania updates
17 July 2006
Wikimania updates
10 July 2006
Meetups And Newsworthy International Assemblages
3 July 2006
More featured speakers at Wikimania
26 June 2006
Hacking Days
19 June 2006
Featured Speakers at Wikimania
12 June 2006
Other international meetups
5 June 2006
About Wikimania
29 May 2006
About Wikimania
22 May 2006
About Wikimania
15 May 2006
About Wikimania
8 May 2006
About Wikimania
1 May 2006
About Wikimania
24 April 2006
Three years of meetups : 2003-2006
17 April 2006
Introduction to a series: Looking forward to Wikimania 2006
10 April 2006
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Wikimania recap |
This week, we continue our overview of Wikimania 2005, the first annual international Wikimedia conference, held in Frankfurt, Germany. See last week's story for an introduction to the conference.
The program at Wikimania 2005 was very diverse. The conference program filled four rooms (and occasionally a fifth) throughout the conference. There were 65 presentations, workshops, panels and keynotes, plus an open board meeting of the Wikimedia Foundation and a number of posters that were placed on display.
There were four keynote speakers: Richard Stallman, the founder of the Free Software Foundation; Ward Cunningham, inventor of the wiki; Ross Mayfield, CEO of Socialtext; and of course Jimbo himself. All four gave very well-attended presentations. Jimbo, in his opening keynote on Friday, spoke about the future of the free content movement and "Ten Things That Will Be Free", a topic which he was also guest-blogging about on Lawrence Lessig's blog. Stallman spoke about "Copyright vs. Community" to a lively crowd; he also blogged about his experience getting to the conference. Cunningham gave a presentation on the background of creating the original wiki software and why he did so, entitled "Wikis Then and Now". Finally, Mayfield gave a presentation on "Case studies on Wiki use within Enterprises for Project Communication".
Other speakers discussed various topics including wiki communities and contributors, wiki software development, wiki use in education, knowledge creation and collaboration, and more. There were also several technical workshops on topics such as using geo-data, customizing MediaWiki and sound recording. Several presentations focussed on the developing world and smaller wiki projects. One highlight of this was the "Wikis in the Developing World" panel, which focussed on wikis and Wikipedia in Africa and how to get participation in African languages. There was also a "Global Voices" panel which had presentations about the Women of Uganda network, wiki use in Iran, technology use in Arab countries, and an overview of the Chinese Wikipedia.
The conference presentations and abstracts were originally collected as a Wikibook, but following some debate about whether they were suitable for Wikibooks, were moved to meta, and are awaiting an eventual planned move to a permanent site.
There was a well-attended party at the Brotfabrik, a venue with a long tradition of hosting Wikipedia gatherings; by the end of the night, before everyone caught vans and taxis back to their rooms, many of the attendees and speakers had been convinced to put down their drinks and dance for a bit. There was also a contest for the best writing, photography, and media, with prizes contributed by Directmedia, O'Reilly, and Apple, and winners announced during the closing awards ceremony.
A wikireader on Frankfurt was printed and distributed to conference attendees, and the week provided many opportunities to discover the city. Outings at the end of the conference included two tours of the national library, and a walking tour of the city.
Wikimania attracted a good deal of local and international media attention; print, radio, and television. A number of the international attendees were called on during the event for interviews by papers from their home countries, and the organizers of the conference, along with Jimbo, gave nearly continuous interviews during the conference.
A national radio van took over the hostel's central courtyard for a night and a day, during which it ran a live broadcast from the courtyard for almost half an hour. A documentary team from New York came to videotape the conference; this was later turned into a half-hour film. Links to much of the press coverage of the conference were collected on the Wikipedia press page. There was also extensive coverage on Wikinews. Many photos of the event were also placed on Flickr.
Editor's note: Registration is now open for Wikimania 2006, happening this year in Cambridge, Mass.. Make your plans now to attend!
Wikipedia founder and president Jimbo Wales recently attended the gala for the The Time 100 most influential people held on Monday, 8 May. Wales was described as "a champion of Internet-enabled egalitarianism" by Time, which sponsored the list and gala (see archived story). A video of the event by Rocketboom is available.
On Sunday, 14 May, the Swiss Wikimedia chapter was officially formed in Olten. Twelve people were in attendance at the ceremony, where Ilario Valdelli was named president of the chapter. The group's first event will be "Swiss Wikipedia Day 2006", planned to be held in Zürich. The chapter becomes at least the seventh chapter of Wikimedia, joining Wikimedia Deutschland (Germany), Wikimédia France (France), Wikimedia Italia (Italy), Wikimedia Polska (Poland), Wikimedia Србије и Црне Горе (Serbia and Montenegro), and Wikimedia UK.
Wikimedia Chief Technical Officer and developer Brion Vibber gave a presentation as part of the Google TechTalk series on 28 April. In the 55-minute speech, Vibber discussed the MediaWiki software that Wikipedia uses and how the site has handled increased traffic since its beginnings. "Brion reviews past and future directions for Wikipedia's software and hardware, and how modern buzzword technologies could power and simplify the wiki world," Google summarized. "Brion Vibber has worked on MediaWiki and Wikipedia's servers for four years, watching over its frightening growth from thousands to millions of pages, from dozens to thousands of hits per second." The entire presentation is available online at Google Video.
The presentation drew the attention of several blogs, including one by Greg Linden, who commented on Wikipedia's technical structure.
Wikipedia has recently moved up in Alexa rankings, which tracks the popularity of websites globally based on the number of visits and pagehits. Now ranked number 16, Wikipedia has surpassed Google UK, which is now ranked 17. Among the websites ranked higher than Wikipedia are: Yahoo! (ranked number 1); Google (ranked number 2); Baidu (ranked number 4), the Chinese search engine that recently opened Baidu Baike, a controversial Chinese wiki-encyclopedia (see related story); MySpace (ranked number 6); eBay (ranked number 8); and Amazon (ranked number 14).
The number of "Good articles", a selected group of articles with a less stringent process than featured articles, has reached over 1000 articles, surpassing the number of featured articles. The project is intended to be the stepping stone for articles to featured status; articles that become featured are removed from the list of "good" articles. The project, however, has been both criticized and lauded since its inception for the general concept of a level of articles before featured status and for its easiness to nominate and de-nominate articles.
The main Wikipedia story in the news this week was the launch of Baidu Baike, a new online encyclopedia in China, run by the search engine company Baidu (see related story). It is not a wiki, but does allow users to submit articles for editorial review. It also complies with Chinese censorship guidelines, unlike Wikipedia which has been banned in China since 2005.
The story was widely covered in mainstream and technology media:
Tech publications:
"Wikipedia and Social Collaboration" in the business journal Line 56 is a scholarly look at the internal workings of Wikipedia. It concludes:
In an article Monday, the Ottawa Citizen encouraged readers to contribute to Wikipedia:WikiProject Ottawa and help improve coverage of neighborhoods, buildings, and landmarks in Canada's capital.
Two articles this week picked up an older Associated Press story highlighting the ability of politicians to use Wikipedia as a vehicle for the manipulation of information, including:
Five users were granted admin status last week: Metamagician3000 (nom), Nihonjoe (nom), Sreed1234 (nom), BrownHairedGirl (nom) and Whouk (nom).
Meanwhile, one of the current candidates, Bucketsofg, has written an amusing song, The RfA Candidate's Song, set to the tune of that ever-popular source for parodic inspiration, the Major General's Song.
Eleven articles were featured last week: Halloween II (film) (nom), Final Fantasy X (nom), Hurricane Mitch (nom), Alpha Phi Alpha (nom), Ike Altgens (nom), Sunday Times Golden Globe Race (nom), 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake (nom), Liberal Democrats leadership election, 2006 (nom), Manila Light Rail Transit System (nom), Nauru (nom) and Transhumanism (nom).
One list reached featured list status last week: List of Presidents of the Philippines.
The following featured articles were displayed last week on the main page as Today's featured article: HTTP cookie, Pink Floyd, Flag of Australia, Military history of France, Perfect Dark, Prostitution in the People's Republic of China and Sanssouci.
These were the pictures of the day last week: Leaf morphology, Notre-Dame de Montréal Basilica, Rooster, White-breasted Nuthatch, Schloss Neuschwanstein, San Francisco International Airport and Uncle Sam.
Five pictures reached featured picture status last week:
{{BASEPAGENAME}} and {{BASEPAGENAMEE}} were introduced, which provide the first-level "directory" of a page (this article's values, for example, would be "Wikipedia Signpost/Single" and "Wikipedia_Signpost/Single", respectively) (Rob Church){{NUMBEROFPAGES}} and {{CURRENTVERSION}} were introduced. The former provides the current number of pages (not articles), while the latter provides the current version number of MediaWiki. (Rob Church)Brion Vibber made some changes to the database dump code to make it "almost self-correcting".
Other server-related events, problems, and changes included:
The Arbitration Committee closed two cases this week.
A case against Monicasdude was closed on Friday. As a result, Monicasdude was placed on civility parole and banned from edits relating to the deletion process. Monicasdude was found to have assumed bad faith and acted uncivilly in deletion decisions on articles for deletion and proposed deletion.
A case against Terryeo was closed on Saturday. As a result, Terryeo was banned indefinitely from Scientology and Dianetics-related articles, and placed on indefinite personal attack parole and probation. Terryeo had made personal attacks, edit warred, removed references, and misinterpreted NPOV on these articles.
Cases involving Deathrocker (user page), Infinity0 (user page), Sam Spade (user page), PoolGuy (user page), and editors on Biological psychiatry are in the evidence phase.
Cases involving users SqueakBox and Zapatancas, Marcosantezana (user page), and Locke Cole (user page) are in the voting phase.
Motions to close are on the table in the cases involving Messhermit (user page), Jacrosse (user page) and users DarrenRay and 2006BC.
A motion to restrict StrangerInParadise to one user account has seven support votes with no opposition.
