Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Single/2006-04-17
From the editor
Our new weekly series, M.A.N.I.A., was delayed a day this week due to computer problems. Apologies also on the late publication; I was hoping Sj would be able to get his computer up in time to finish his article.
Plan on M.A.N.I.A. showing up again next week; until then, satisfy your Wikimania craving by visiting the official Wikimania 2006 Wiki.
As always, thank you for continuing to read the Signpost.
— Ral315
BBC Focus renews encyclopedia comparisons
Wikipedia has been matched up against other online encyclopedias in a new test, but with somewhat different results. In contrast to the Nature study last December, whose validity the Encyclopædia Britannica contested after it showed Wikipedia content was comparable but slightly more error-prone than Britannica’s, this comparison actually rated Wikipedia ahead.
The comparison appeared in the May issue of the monthly science and technology magazine
Review details
With respect to bird flu, virologist Richard Elliot deemed Wikipedia's entry more up-to-date than its competitors', but did note that its terminology section was "confused and contains errors". The reviewer of the Stephenson article was impressed by its detail, noting that it was the only one to point out that Stephenson was responsible for the
Astronomer Duncan Steel criticized the Planetesimal article for "confusing statements that contain factual errors and punctuation outrages". However, he described his main beef with Wikipedia as being an unrelated issue, its coverage of asteroids. Specifically, he mentioned the lack of an article on
Overall, Wikipedia was the only encyclopedia in the test to be rated 4/5, or "Good". Britannica and Encarta were each given a 3/5 ("Average"), and InfoPlease only a 2/5 ("Dodgy"). The article's summary pointed out that, because all the encyclopedias had errors and omissions, "they should be viewed as starting points for your research rather than as all-encompassing fountains of knowledge". But it concluded that Wikipedia, although "only marginally more accurate", is, because of its number of articles and ability to incorporate current news, "most likely to have what you need".
Wikipedia competition a political football
Whether Wikipedia competes directly with Britannica and the others is a matter of some dispute; Britannica officials have recently tried to emphasize that, whatever Wikipedia's merits, the two are not truly comparable. However, the prospect of competition for Wikipedia also came up in another context last week—this time, as an argument for
In this case, the politician was U.S. Representative
Presumably, Markey was speaking hypothetically, not describing the current situation, in which Wikipedia users still occasionally encounter access difficulties. And, the latest study notwithstanding, some of the commercial competitors undoubtedly would hotly contest whether they can fairly be described as having "inferior content".
Media coverage of Wikipedia hoax results in article
An attempt to post a fake vanity biography on Wikipedia made news last week, even though the article had been created months ago and deleted as a hoax. As a result of this attention, the article has been re-created and now focuses on the news coverage about the hoax's perpetrator.
Hoax created and deleted
The subject,
Finally, RussBlau submitted it to Articles for deletion on 20 October. The article spent the usual five days going through that process, and near the end Mcilwraith apparently noticed this and tried to blank the article. Comments were unanimously in favor of deletion, and the article was then deleted by Woohookitty.
When the article was re-created in December, Average Earthman noticed it again and tagged it for speedy deletion, but this was changed to a cleanup tag by Brookie. Deltabeignet finally deleted it two days later after Average Earthman re-tagged it for speedy deletion. Average Earthman jumped on yet another attempt to re-create the article in February within minutes, and Katefan0 then deleted it, leaving a protected placeholder to prevent further re-creation.
Media gives it new life
Mcilwraith, in reality a call-centre employee in Glasgow, had apparently also been passing himself off as a decorated war hero to local civic groups. This led the local paper, the Daily Record, to publish an exposé on 11 April 2006 and mention his Wikipedia antics. Coverage then spread to a number of other British publications. Responding to media interest in the Wikipedia angle, David Gerard wrote an extensive explanation as a case study in how Wikipedia deals with hoaxes.
While the press frequently mentioned Wikipedia in their coverage, they typically did so briefly, such as to quote from Mcilwraith's faux biography. Average Earthman complained that the stories gave the impression Wikipedia had only just discovered the hoax, appearing as they did some time after the situation had been dealt with. A similar previous incident happened when Joshua Gardner tried to pass himself off as a Duke of Cleveland by writing an article about his claimed persona (see archived story). This happened in May 2005, and the hoax was promptly identified and deleted, yet media coverage about the story didn't hit until January 2006.
In response to the media coverage, Henrygb unprotected the placeholder and recast the article as the story of the hoax itself. Alkivar restored the deleted revisions for the hoax version of the article, so that the full sequence can now be traced in the article's history.
Answers.com relationship scrutinized again upon release of tool
A new tool was released last week intended to bring revenue to Wikipedia from advertising on a partner site, Answers.com. However, the occasion prompted renewed scrutiny of the relationship and the business practices of Wikipedia's partner.
On Tuesday, Jimbo Wales added a link to the new Wikipedia edition of the 1-Click Answers tool on the Wikipedia:Tools page, which covers various external tools related to Wikipedia. The tool in question allows users to click on words in any program on their screen and bring up content from Answers.com related to the term, in this case specifically from Wikipedia. It also comes with a toolbar where you can type in terms and do the same thing.
On the Answers.com website, the tool is available for download from a dedicated page. However, it is not mentioned on the primary page that lists the free downloads available from the site. In addition, the Wikipedia edition is offered only for Windows, unlike the regular tool which also provides a version for Mac OS X.
The arrangement was first revealed last October and became the focus of some controversy in the Wikipedia community (see
Answers licensing and patent strategy
One concern raised at the time of the original announcement involved the Answers.com terms of use, which attempt to restrict use of the content in a way that goes beyond the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. Whether this would have any legal effect is doubtful, and the terms of use are part of a generic page covering all Answers.com content, much of which is only available under more restrictive terms. Greg Maxwell called the terms "unacceptable" and argued the link should be rejected unless the terms of service are amended. However, jacoplane pointed out that the terms do acknowledge that content provided by others is "governed by the specific terms of service governing such third party content" and their copyrights page does mention the GFDL. Jimbo Wales also said Answers.com would look at rewriting the terms of service to make this more clear.
Since the original announcement, Answers.com's parent company, Answers Corporation, has also been involved in patent litigation related to the tool. In March, Answers filed a claim in a
In response, Erik Möller objected to listing the tool because of Answers' business practice of using controversial software patents. He pointed out Wikipedia's own restrictions on using patent-encumbered media formats. While acknowledging that many companies collect software patents, he criticized the aggressive use of them in litigation, raising the possibility that it could be used against open source developers as well (creation of an equivalent free software tool has been discussed, but apparently not pursued). Möller called for the partnership to be cancelled, and suggested that if the listing on the Tools page mentioned revenue for Wikimedia, it also needed to point out the patent controversy.
News and notes
New anti-vandalism tool released
A new anti-vandalism application, dubbed
Bengali Wikipedia campaign
Ragib, a native of Bangladesh and administrator on both the English and Bengali (or Bangla) Wikipedias, reports some developments with the Bengali Wikipedia in addition to its recent milestone (see below). He relates that the project was mostly dormant until a publicity campaign starting last month in Bangladeshi media brought in a number of new volunteers. Underrepresentation of particular languages has been a longstanding concern for Wikimedia Foundation projects. Bengali is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, ranking somewhere between fourth and seventh, depending on how speakers are counted and whether non-native speakers are included.
Briefly
- The Greek Wiktionary has reached 14,000 entries.
- The Japanese Wikipedia has reached 50,000 registered users.
- The Finnish Wiktionary has reached 20,000 entries.
- The Breton Wikipedia has reached 6,000 articles.
- The Vietnamese Wikipedia reaches 8,000 registered users.
- The Nynorsk Wikipedia has reached 15,000 articles.
- The Bengali Wikipedia has reached 1,000 articles.
- The Haitian Wikipedia has reached 1,000 articles.
- The Russian Wikipedia has reached 70,000 articles
- The Azeri Wikipedia has reached 3,000 articles.
- The Indonesian Wikipedia has reached 22,000 articles.
- The English Wikipedia has reached 50,000,000 edits since July 2002.
- The Cantonese Wikipedia has reached 200 articles.
- The Marathi Wikipedia has reached 400 registered users.
- The Slovenian Wikipedia has reached 3,000 registered users.
- The Ido Wiktionary has reached 40,000 pages.
- The Korean Wikipedia has reached 23,000 articles.
In the news
Wikipedia criticism site makes Slashdot
San Francisco bureau chief for
Jimbo Wales speaks to students
Jason Scott critiques Wikipedia
The Gadget Show
Wikipedia was featured on
The reporter decided that Wikipedia is better on pop culture than Britannica (citing
The programme's website has a long summary of the feature ("WIKI!").
TripAdvisor adds wiki to site
According to
Articles
- "Online encyclopædia Wikipedia aircraft group allege deliberate misleading Airbus and Boeing entries", Flight International
- "The tough position of Wikipedia", The Daily Barometer, Oregon State University
- "Wikipedia site filled with major mistakes", Warren Boroson, Daily Record, Morristown NY, USA
Blog mentions
- "How much do you trust Wikipedia?, PBS Media Shift (a blog by Mark Glaser)
- "Problems for Wikipedia", PC Review
Features and admins
Administrators
Five users were granted
)In addition, BradPatrick, legal counsel to the Wikimedia Foundation, was sysopped by Foundation employee Danny Wool.
100th featured list promoted
The 100th
Other featured content
Six articles were promoted to featured status last week: Mariah Carey, Corinthian War, Ina Garten, Music of the United States, Sanssouci and Rabindranath Tagore. No articles were de-featured last week.
The following featured articles were displayed last week on the main page as
.The latest portal to reach featured status is Portal:India.
Eleven pictures reached featured picture status last week:
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Huli Wigman
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Extra-vehicular activity -
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Another Place -
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Dinner Plain
Bugs, Repairs, and Internal Operational News
Option developed for forcing edit summaries
Last week, a new option was added to the
Parser functions enabled
Developer Tim Starling has enabled the ParserFunction extension on all Wikimedia wikis. The extension allows for the simplification of logic code and "mathematical expressions and conditional constructs", according to Starling. Several templates have already been simplified because of the extension.
Spam blacklist loophole rectified
A loophole in the spam blacklist was corrected by developer Rob Church. Previously, any URL in the spam list could be added by inserting hidden comments (<!-- -->) in the address; the loophole was being exploited by those who wished to add the spam sites. The change now prohibits the addition of the sites listed, even if comments are inserted in the website address.
Last week in servers
Server-related events, problems, and changes included:
- 12 April — English Wikipedia moved to separate cluster from other databases
- 13 April — CAPTCHAs enabled on Chinese Wikipedia to fight a vandalbot attack
- 15 April — English Wikipedia's main database server crashes, site briefly in read-only mode
The Report On Lengthy Litigation
The Arbitration Committee closed two cases this week. In addition, a motion passed in a prior case.
Wheel war case
A
ZAROVE
A case against ZAROVE was closed on Tuesday. As a result, ZAROVE was banned indefinitely from articles relating to Acharya S, and prohibited from making any comments relating to Acharya S. ZAROVE, a frequent editor on the page, had released personal information about the subject of the article.
Lightbringer motion passes
A motion in the
Other cases
Cases were accepted this week involving
). Both are in the evidence phase.Additional cases involving
are in the evidence phase.Cases involving Aucaman (user page), Agapetos angel (user page), Locke Cole (user page), Lou franklin (user page) and editors on Bible verse articles are in the voting phase.
No motions to close are currently on the table.
Three years of meetups : 2003-2006
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, the Signpost reflects on three years of Wikipedia
Early discussions
Wikipedia was around for almost three years before it spawned the first recorded wikimeet or meetup. In December 2002,
In January 2003, Jimbo suggested that Wikipedians meet in person; and that this might help resolve differences between them. A meetup page was started on Meta to gather suggestions for times and places to gather. The page noted that "[Jimbo] and Larry Sanger used to have bitter Usenet exchanges and when they met in person they became friends; so maybe a Wikipedia meetup would help the sense of community".
In particular, Jimbo had the idea of meeting twice a year in different regions of the world. Early location suggestions included FOSDEM 2003 and an Esperanto conference in Boston (mind the Esperantists; they make another appearance in paragraph 6).
In October 2003, the German Wikipedians started their own meetup page on the German Wikipedia, after Fantasy suggested a meeting in Munich. This soon took place, on 28 October, 2003; a meetup that is still proudly remembered on the German page as the world's first Wikipedia meetup. 5 people attended : elian, chd, Heizer, Fantasy, and Tkarcher.
Summer 2004 : renewed interest
A few larger meetups were planned for the summer of 2004 in Berlin, Genoa, Munich, and Paris. Jimbo was planning a tour through Europe, something more unusual in those days, and efforts were made to coordinate with him so that he could attend these meetups. Fantasy helped promote the idea and update wiki pages about it, including creating a new English Wikipedia page in the hopes that a similar meeting might be planned for the UK. An edit summary advised, "Just set a date and start advertising". Pages were soon created in other languages as well.
By June of 2004, a
This was followed by his attending a large meetup in Berlin on 12 June, during the Wizards of OS 3 conference, and the next week a meetup in Munich, where it all began, on 19 June. That very day, the first spanish-language meetup was held in Madrid.
On 4 July, Jimbo attended a major French Wikipedia meetup in Paris. This meeting was a milestone in many respects; it was the founding meeting for Wikimédia France, and also the first time Jimbo, Angela, and Anthere met in person.
Other milestone gatherings included the first Asian meetup, on 25 July in Beijing, and the first United States meetup, on 31 July in Boston, which Jimbo attended after returning to the States.
Recent gatherings
Meetups are often coordinated with visits from an active Wikipedian, or with conferences and other events where Wikipedia should have a presence. Since 2004, some efforts have been made to list upcoming events on Meta, and Jimbo began keeping his travel schedule on his userpage there.
Meetups have now been held in dozens of cities around the world, including
The largest meetup to date was Wikimania 2005, with almost 400 attendees... but more on that next week.
Next up — About Wikimania.