I'm proud to announce that the Signpost will be interviewing Wikipedia founder Jimbo Wales this weekend. This is our second interview with Jimbo; the first interview was published in February 2006.
The interview will happen on Sunday, September 9, sometime around 22:00-23:00 UTC. The interview will be open for readers to watch, in the moderated #wikipedia-signpost channel on freenode. The interview will run in next week's Signpost.
We're currently soliciting questions for the interview on this article's talk page; your input is welcome. We will also accept anonymous questions, if desired, via e-mail.
One thing I'd like to note is that while I've been considering another interview of Jimbo for a while, a request by Raul654 for such an interview really helped get the wheels going on it. If you have any ideas for interviews or stories, please leave a note on our tip line.
Thanks for reading the Signpost.
— Ral315
In the weeks since the WikiScanner tool was first used, several “minor public relations disasters” have been created by its use. One of the most recent ones involved the Dutch prince and princess, Prince Friso and Princess Mabel. This information first came to light on the Administrator’s Noticeboard for Incidents (AN/I), in this discussion. The Prince and Princess removed a key part of a quote from the Dutch Prime Minister about the scandal surrounding their wedding. The word “false” was cut from a quote saying “…incomplete and false information”. The edit in question was made from Queen Beatrix’s royal palace.
An editor using a computer at the CIA was found to have edited the articles about Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Porter Goss (the head of the CIA), among others. The CIA did not admit to editing the articles in question. Also, a computer at the Vatican was used to remove a mention of Gerry Adams’s alleged involvement in a double murder, and an anonymous editor from the BBC changed George Walker Bush’s middle name to “wanker”. Some of these disruptive edits have resulted in blocks; the IP addresses of Netherlands Public Radio and Radio Netherlands Worldwide have been blocked for more than 70 unconstructive edits over a period of more than 2 years. Also, a computer at major U.S. military contractor SAIC was the source of changes to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) article, adding such things as “The ACLU's real mission is to create a Eugenicist Communist society based on principles of Anarchy against the will of the American people.” and “The ACLU is trying to destroy America.”
WikiScanner is continuing to expand; it has now been translated into three languages besides English: German, Japanese, and French. There are Wikipedia articles for WikiScanner on several Wikipedias, including Spanish, French, Italian, and Polish. The English article has continued to evolve. It has been edited about 11 times a day. Some major contributors to the article are Casey Abell and Hypnosadist.
The general reaction to WikiScanner has remained largely positive. The Wikimedia Foundation’s reaction to its invention has been favorable with Jimmy Wales stating in a TechNewsWorld.com article, "It's awesome—I love it … It brings an additional level of transparency to what's going on at Wikipedia … [WikiScanner] uses information we've been making publicly available forever, hoping someone would do something like this." A spokesperson for the Foundation said in a Scotland Sunday Herald article that "We really value transparency and the scanner may prevent an organisation or individuals from editing articles that they're really not supposed to."
This week's WikiWorld comic uses text from "George P. Burdell". The comic is released under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 license for use on Wikipedia and elsewhere.
Last month, Wikimedia consultant Sue Gardner announced that a fundraiser would be held sometime this fall, possibly from September 23 through November 22. The last Wikimedia fundraiser ended in January, and netted the Foundation over US$1,000,000 in one month. By comparison, over the 7 1/2 months since the end of the fundraiser, only about US$508,000 has been raised.
New bids for Wikimania 2008 closed this week. Bids can be expanded and refined, but must be finalized by September 23; on that day, a public meeting will be held, and over the following two weeks, a question-and-answer period will help the judges with their final decision, currently scheduled for October 6. Six bids have been entered: Alexandria, Atlanta, Cape Town, Karlsruhe, London, and Toronto.
Wikipedia founder puts faith in many: Wales reinforces the idea that Wikipedia is a good starting point for research, instead of being the only point of reference. Companies can take on the idea of collaboration to allow ideas to come in from outside the company, and tools exist for allowing large numbers of people to work collaboratively, such as wikis. However, he cautions that just because a lot of people have looked at a something doesn't mean it's correct, but "It's certainly better than only one person looking at it". Wales reaffirms Wikipedia's volunteers' commitment to quality and openness.
Stephen Glover on The Press: The author scrutinises Wikipedia entries on journalists and discovers that there is a wide discrepancy between the comprehensiveness of different articles, and concludes that some articles contain details that could only have been inserted by the subject of the article. His impression is that "some journalists think about little else than the on-line encyclopaedia". However, he notes that inclusion has its perils in the form of vandalism that can occur to your article.
Other recent mentions of Wikipedia in the online press include:
Two users were granted admin status via the Requests for Adminship process this week: WODUP (nom) and Arkyan (nom).
Three bots or bot tasks were approved to begin operating this week: Chris G Bot 2 (task request), ArbComBot (task request) and SkiersBot (task request).
Seventeen articles were promoted to featured status last week: Oxidative phosphorylation (nom), 1981 Irish hunger strike (nom), Victoria Cross for New Zealand (nom), Hispanic Americans in World War II (nom), Development of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (nom), Dungeons & Dragons (nom), Harry S. Truman (nom), Tim Duncan (nom), Gregory of Nazianzus (nom), Renewable energy in Scotland (nom), Bupropion (nom), Aikido (nom), 1880 Republican National Convention (nom), Ramón Emeterio Betances (nom), Augustus (nom), Pilot (Smallville) (nom) and Ine of Wessex (nom).
Two articles were de-featured last week: Franks (nom) and Space elevator (nom).
Fifteen lists were promoted to featured status last week: Vezina Trophy (nom), Conn Smythe Trophy (nom), List of Aston Villa F.C. managers (nom), Manchester United F.C. seasons (nom), Natasha Bedingfield discography (nom), Frank J. Selke Trophy (nom), Eurovision Song Contest winners (nom), Lady Byng Memorial Trophy (nom), List of gay, lesbian or bisexual people/W-Z (nom), List of Bleach Soul Society: The Sneak Entry arc episodes (nom), List of counties in Nevada (nom), Lester B. Pearson Award (nom), Surviving veterans of World War I (nom), List of medical schools in the United Kingdom (nom) and List of tallest buildings in Philadelphia (nom).
One list was de-featured last week: List of The Batman episodes (nom)
No portals were promoted to featured status last week.
One topic was promoted to featured status last week: Lists of current World Wrestling Entertainment champions (nom).
The following featured articles were displayed last week on the Main Page as Today's featured article: Moon, Archaeopteryx, Houston, Ulm Campaign, Lage Raho Munna Bhai, John Millington Synge, and Hamlet chicken processing plant fire.
The following featured pictures were displayed last week on the Main Page as picture of the day: Battle of Chancellorsville, Bryce Canyon, Guide on using a sextant, Sparrenburg Castle, Iapetus, Glossy Ibis, and Huaso.
Eight pictures were promoted to featured status last week and are shown below.
This is a summary of recent technology and site configuration changes that affect the English Wikipedia. Note that not all changes described here are live as of press time; the English Wikipedia is currently running version 1.44.0-wmf.3 (b4aac1f), and changes to the software with a version number higher than that will not yet be active.
Six Wikimedia wikis were closed recently:
The Arbitration Committee accepted five new cases this week, and closed four cases.
_background_blurred.jpg){kind=link}
