Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2005-09-12/In the news

Reuters discusses Wikipedia growth
Reuters featured "News junkies find Wikipedia more than encyclopedia", a 6 September article about how "the rising status of the site as the Web's intellectual demilitarized zone, the favored place people look for background on an issue or to settle a polemical dispute, also poses challenges for the volunteer ethic that gave it rise." It includes quotes from Jimbo Wales. Many other news agencies, including CNN Online and The Register, ran the article verbatim or wrote articles derived from the Reuters piece.

Wales profiled in Florida Trend
"Wiki Mania" is the cover story in the September issue of Florida Trend, "The Magazine of Florida Business". The article includes a profile of Jimbo Wales and an examination of the history and significance of Wikipedia and Wikicities.

Le Monde examines Wikipedia
Three articles about Wikipedia were printed in prominent French newspaper Le Monde in September. "Wikipedia, une encyclopédie libertaire sur le Net (Wikipedia, a free encyclopedia on the Net)" examines the history and philosophy of the project. "Trois questions à Jimmy Wales (Three questions for Jimmy Wales)", asks why Wales founded the project, what the wiki system is, and how the community resolves ideological differences. "Un défi pour les dictionnaires Larousse ou Robert (A challenge for the Larousse or Robert dictionaries)" discusses the competition Wikipedia may present to traditional French reference sources in the future.

FindLaw discusses open source information
FindLaw's Writ ran a commentary by John Dean on 9 September entitled "Doing Legal, Political, and Historical Research on the Internet: Using Blog Forums, Open Source Dictionaries, and More". Dean discussed the utility of "open source information", including Wikipedia, blogs, and the TPM Café. He also mentions an alleged error in his own article, which has since been properly attributed and described by Ummit and an anonymous user.

Blog mentions
JURIST used Wikipedia as a background reference for the Posse Comitatus Act, in their 9 September article "Katrina response has US lawmakers reconsidering Posse Comitatus Act"

During Hurricane Katrina, private homeland security blogger W. David Stephenson said, "there's also a prominent disclaimer: '[...] Do not decide whether to leave your house, shelter, or vehicle based on Wikipedia information.' True enough, but I can also visualize a situation, if things get worse and the conventional media are knocked out, where the Wikipedia posts might be the most accurate." Public wisdom: Hurricane Katrina wikipedia article growing rapidly.

Editorsweblog.org discussed "How Wikipedia's rising recognition may affect newspapers" on September 9.

Alexandre Enkerli writes about "Deep Change in the Media? (Truth and Trust, Information, Knowledge)", mentioning the Wikipedia/Britannica comparison in debates of trust and authority.

Citations in the news
Wikipedia was cited in the last week in the following publications:


 * Arizona Republic on Sudoku
 * Guardian Unlimited on Silver iodide
 * Hindustan Times, India on Jeffrey Bernard
 * Jerusalem Post on Hurricane Katrina
 * Minneapolis Star Tribune on Risk management
 * Aspen Times on Hurricane Katrina
 * Best Syndication on Phishing
 * Gonzaga Bulletin on the Southern Baptist Church
 * Fort Frances Times, Canada on the Honeybee
 * Houston Chronicle on Chief Justice of the United States
 * Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Supreme Court
 * Rocky Mountain News on airlines
 * Calgary Herald on Marquis of Lorne
 * Montreal Gazette on Superdome
 * Whitley Strieber's Unknown Country on Six degrees of separation


 * Thanks to Lotsofissues for some of these citations.