Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2013-08-14/In the media

Wikimania was heavily covered in the international press this week (see "In brief", below). One major story that came out of the conference was Jimmy Wales’ statements that he would prefer to have Wikipedia banned entirely in mainland China than censored as it is currently.

Wales was interviewed by the The Wall Street Journal's Digits blog (and later covered in the same paper's China Realtime Report blog) during Wikimania. The comments came about during a discussion on access to the secure version of Wikimedia projects—in China, the uncensored, encrypted version of Wikipedia is blocked completely by the Great Firewall, but the unencrypted version is available with keyword filtering.

The Chinese government's censorship and occasional banning of Wikipedia has meant that Wikipedia is not the dominant online encyclopedia on the mainland; rather, competitors like Baidu Baike and Hudong predominate. Though activists have asked Wikipedia to make the encrypted version the default version of the site, to force Beijing's hand, Wales and the Foundation say that this is not currently technically feasible. Also stating that he opposed any efforts by the Chinese government to force editors to register under real names, Wales concluded that "We don’t approve of filtering, but there is nothing we can do to stop it."

The interview was covered in Tech2 (Will not comply with China's censorship diktat, insists Jimmy Wales), BoingBoing (Jimmy Wales: Wikipedia won't surveil users for China), The Diplomat (Wikipedia Refuses to Comply with China's Censorship), Shanghaiist (Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales refuses to comply with Chinese censors), the International Business Times (Wikipedia Assures It Will Not Bow Down to ANY China Censorship Demands), Policymic (Wikipedia's Co-founder is Ready to Call China's Bluff), Firstpost (Would prefer no Wikipedia in China than follow censorship laws: Jimmy Wales), the Washington Post Worldview (Wikipedia largely alone in defying Chinese self censorship demands), and the China Digital Times (Wikipedia Co-Founder Refuses to Comply with Censorship).

In brief

 * Jimmy Wales's plenary: Covered in this week's Signpost special report, various parts of Wales' speech were covered by several media outlets, including CNN (Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales calls for new model of journalism), the Wall Street Journal's Digits blog (Wikipedia Co-Founder Urges Vigilant Journalism), and the South China Morning Post (Wikiwonks soak up their guru's grand vision at Hong Kong conference).
 * Wikipedia fails to bridge gender gap: The South China Morning Post covered progress on the gender gap problem in recent years. DNA India also published an article by Netha Hussein on the gender gap.
 * US cybersurveillance plans will spark legal challenges: Wikipedia pioneer: Wales also discussed cybersecurity and censorship in the context of the United States and Edward Snowden's recent revelations of the extent of American spying programs, in an interview with the South China Morning Post.
 * Despite blocks, Wikipedia strives for free knowledge in China: SmartPlanet covered Wikimania in the context of censorship on mainland China, and what many perceive as less filtering in recent years.
 * Listen to Wikipedia: TechHive ('Listen to Wikipedia turns heated edit wars into soothing music), TechTree ('Listen To Wikipedia' Turns Edits to Music), Time (Like a Nerdy Wind Chime: Real-Time Wikipedia Edits Set to Music), The Verge (Fall asleep to the sound of Wikipedia), msnNOW (The sounds of Wikipedia are far more pleasant than you'd think), PSFK (Wikipedia Edits Transformed Into a Symphony of Sounds), GeekSmash (What Does Wikipedia Sound Like?), and CNet (Surrender to the soothing sounds of Wikipedia) covered Listen to Wikipedia, a project that turns Special:RecentChanges into music.
 * ROM gathers 'e-volunteers for a Wikipedia edit-a-thon Friday: The Toronto Star covered an upcoming editathon at the Royal Ontario Museum.
 * Wikipedia's Wales calls Ed Snowden an "American hero" : The Wall Street Journal published a video interview with Wales where he discussed Snowden. The interview was also covered in SlashGear and CNN.
 * Kiwix downloads Wikipedia to your PC, Mac, or Android for offline access: LifeHacker covered Kiwix's abilities. An article also appeared on Ghacks.
 * Feminists launch model for online learning: Women's eNews published an article on a new DOCC (Distributed Open Collaborative Course) that will include a Wikipedia component aimed at reducing the gender gap and systemic bias.