Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2006-07-10/In the news

Ken Lay death makes a splash
Following the quickly developing news story on the death of Ken Lay, some typical short-lived instances of biased speculation introduced to Lay's Wikipedia article caught the eye of Reuters, "Lay's death prompts confusion on Wikipedia". (See related story)

Rocketboom split draws attention
The video-blogging team of Rocketboom, which covered Jimmy Wales' appearance at the TIME 100 gala, has gone their separate ways. News of the breakup between producer Andrew Baron and host Amanda Congdon circulated on the Internet and eventually reached major media while the Wikipedia articles were being updated accordingly. Andy Carvin, a Rocketboom correspondent, analyzed how Wikipedia policies influenced what it reported about the reasons for the split and how this compared to other sites. Carvin noted that earlier it had been suggested that Congdon's article be merged with Rocketboom, observing "that's pretty much a moot point now." Interestingly, Congdon's own website directs you to her Wikipedia article to learn more about her.

Quirky editing of senator
The Salt Lake Tribune seemed to be amused in its report about a vandal adding nonsense to the article about Utah's Senator Orrin Hatch. The paper commented that "many techies aren't fans" as a result of Hatch's previous comments about music downloading.

Wikia turns political
Jimmy Wales and Angela Beesley's for-profit wiki hosting company, Wikia, Inc., launched a Campaigns Wikia site last week that received considerable publicity. In light of the efforts of political operatives so far on Wikipedia, one might expect the initiative to be a potential minefield, but Wales said it could be "a central meeting ground for people on all sides of the political spectrum who think that it is time for politics to become more participatory, and more intelligent." David Postman of the Seattle Times said he expected political campaigns to increasingly adopt wikis in some fashion, in the same way that they have begun to use blogs. On his own blog, Postman pointed out some similar local initiatives, the moreperfect.org site started by two activists and separate partisan wikis for Democrats and Republicans from Seattle company Wetpaint. Another candidate, Pete Ashdown, has a wiki for a campaign site.