Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2006-09-18/In the news

Wales interviewed by WSJ
Will Wikipedia Mean the End Of Traditional Encyclopedias? Jimmy Wales and Dale Hoiberg, Encyclopædia Britannica editor in Chief, were interviewed through email by the Wall Street Journal. Wales and Hoiberg discussed issues of editorial control, the differing approaches to content gathering, the balance between quality and open editing, and Wikipedia policies. Hoiberg took offense that Wales included links refering to articles where Britannica received bad publicity; however, Wales responded that links are one of the powerful advantages of being online and that Wikipedia had a "fine article on the [ criticism of Wikipedia ] ". The accompanying WSJ online poll showed strong support for the open editing approach.

Wikipedia articles average 11th in search results
Steve Rubel found that the Wikipedia article for the top 100 advertisers (by marketing dollars spent) was result 11 on Google. Rubel posted a blog entry, Study: Wikipedia Dominates Brand Search Results, that supplemented and quoted an article he wrote in last week's issue of Advertising Age. Rubel opined that 11 was "just shy of the magic number 10 required to make Google's first page of results." He discussed the impact that a Wikipedia article can have on shaping brand identity. Rubel also discussed Wikipedia's neutrality policy and suggested that Wikipedia provide space in the article "where brand managers ... can respond in an official capacity."

Wikipedians appear on Nightline
Jimmy Wales appeared on the ABC News program Nightline to discuss Wikipedia: Getting to Truth by 'Community'. Wales responded to Comedy Central's "Colbert Report" where Stephen Colbert asked fans to falsely report data about elephants saying, "Stop it Colbert. You know in terms of vandalism people were in a panic for a few minutes, [but] it was a pretty minor spate of vandalism." Kat Walsh and Mark Pellegrini were also among those interviewed.

Wikipedia standing in academia
The Indiana Daily Student carried three articles on Wikipedia. In Wikipedia to take on academia, the Daily Student revealed that 44% of faculty allow Wikipedia to be cited as a source, but 35% do not. A followup article, Some professors doubt credibility of site, discussed faculty objections to citing Wikipedia and using poor sources in general. See also Students debate Wiki. At the University of Alberta, Students warned to be wary of Wikipedia.

Continued coverage of China's block of wikipedia.org

 * Wikipedian Baffled by China Ban - Interview of Jimmy Wales by Red Herring on the ban of wikipedia.org
 * No end in sight for Wikipedia block in China - Reuters
 * Wikipedia rejects Chinese censorship - PC Pro
 * Wikipedia tells China's censors to bog off - The Inquirer

Other articles

 * Is Wikipedia 'knowledge' merely third party hearsay? ZDNet discusses the issue.
 * Wikipedia was frequently mentioned as an example of Web 2.0's user generated content model. See Silicon.com, cnet.co.uk, & vnunet.com.
 * Wikipedia now available offline for mobile devices, Is that an encylopedia in your pocket?
 * Mark Glaser, of PBS's MediaShift blog, praises Wikipedia's September 11, 2001 attacks article for being "relatively balanced."