Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2015-04-15/In the media

"Saving Wikipedia"
Time profiles (April 14) Lila Tretikov, executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation. Time paints a grim picture of the challenges faced by Tretikov and the encyclopedia, many of which were discussed in a recent Signpost's special report: a "meager annual budget", the gender gap, "critical gaps in coverage" (such as the Global South), the shrinking ranks of active editors, and the lack of contributions from those who access Wikipedia content through mobile devices, search engines, and personal digital assistants. Time speculates that Wikipedia could contract suddenly, with something similar to the almost 25% dropoff in active editors on the Italian Wikipedia in 2013, or dwindle gradually, a possibility that Andrew Lih compared to "the boiling frogs scenario". William Beutler, author of the blog The Wikipedian, told Time "I do not envy Lila Tretikov’s position."

Time outlined efforts by Tretikov and the WMF to address these issues, such as the Inspire Campaign and Wikipedia Zero. Time wrote that "Tretikov is focusing the Foundation’s limited resources on how readers and editors use the site," including gathering data about user preferences, increasing the number of WMF engineers, and improving and creating editing software like mobile apps. Time notes that some of these efforts have brought the WMF into conflict with the editing community, especially the controversy involving Media Viewer (see previous Signpost coverage). Time highlighted a comment on the German Wikipedia from the controversy: “I want victory over the WMF. I want the WMF to shudder when they remember this case.” Tretikov said to Time that “It’s not realistic to have everybody always in the boat with you,” which may sound ominous to those who wish the WMF to be more responsive to active editors, who Time writes "seem to have divergent views about almost everything." Beutler summed up his view of the problem for Time:

Wikipedians offer libertarian perspectives on Internet regulation
In The Huffington Post UK, Jimmy Wales writes "To Protect the Most Fundamental Rights of Internet Users, We Must Always Be Skeptical of Any Call for Regulation" (April 13). Wales credited "The 'anarchical' character of the Internet" for allowing people to contribute and share knowledge and placed Wikipedia in this tradition. Wikipedia "is based on this simple, yet revolutionary, concept of allowing free and unlimited access to the sum of all human knowledge."

Wales echos libertarian thought when warning of the harmful effect of "even seemingly minor regulation," citing regulations that allow Internet censorship in China and the global surveillance disclosures of Edward Snowden. He writes "even milder regulations by progressive democratic governments must be observed skeptically."

Wales concludes:

In the libertarian magazine Reason, where he is a contributing editor, Mike Godwin writes "What the 'Zero Rating' Debate Reveals About Net Neutrality (April 8). Godwin is former general counsel for the Wikimedia Foundation and is general counsel and director of innovation policy at The R Street Institute, a libertarian think tank.

Godwin opposes "net-neutrality absolutists" who are concerned that "zero-rated services", such as Wikipedia Zero, which are free of mobile usage charges, have troubling implications for net neutrality. He argues that "In the long run, increased demand and increased capacity, together with the free informational resources that Wikipedia and its sibling projects provide, will promote increased Internet access in the developing world."

Fake Thoreau quote uncovered on Wikipedia
At Medium's The Message, librarian Jessamyn West tracks the history (April 13) of a fake quotation about American author Henry David Thoreau, attributed to another famous American author, Louisa May Alcott. The original edit, from December 2007, read:

Within hours, the edit was removed by an editor asking for a reference. The same day, a reference was duly supplied, to the entirety of the sixteen volume collection The Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Another editor removed the final sentence about Thoreau's virginity, thanked the hoaxer for the reference, and asked for "a proper volume/page reference". The hoaxer did not respond and no further action was taken. When the hoaxer attempted to remove their own hoax in April 2008, they were reverted by another editor, who wrote "the information is referenced; if you say it's wrong, prove it." Protected by the faux reference, the hoax remained in the article until it was removed by in March 2014. During the six years it was on Wikipedia, the fake quote made its way into articles, blogs, speeches, and even quizbowl questions.

West attempted to decisively "prove it" a hoax. Unsatisfied with simply not locating the quotation in Emerson's journals in Google Books, she contacted John Overholt, Curator of Early Modern Books & Manuscripts at Harvard University's Houghton Library. (Overholt also created the Tumblr blog First Drafts of History, featuring first edits of Wikipedia articles.) Overholt told West

West concluded "I hope we’ve all learned something about the nature of online citation and that if you really need to know something for certain, ask a librarian."



Wikipedia and online reputation management


British journalist Jon Ronson's March 2015 book So You've Been Publicly Shamed contains a discussion of the online reputation management services provided to one public shaming victim, Lindsey Stone, by Reputation.com. Stone had no Wikipedia presence, but Ronson discussed the work of the company Metal Rabbit with Graeme Wood, who alleged that the Wikipedia article of an unnamed United Nations peacekeeper was edited by the company. Wood wrote a 2013 article on online reputation management for New York which discusses a Metal Rabbit client called "Chad" (not his real name), who is likely the UN peacekeeper. A 2011 profile in the New York Times of Metal Rabbit and its founder, Bryce Tom, noted that "'On a recent Wednesday afternoon, [Tom] was preparing a briefing for a new client, describing how he would 'fix' Wikipedia and the top search results on various search engines. On the walls of his office were framed copies of Google search results and Wikipedia entries of clients: a reality television star, a movie actress and a chief executive officer. Mr. Tom calls it his “wall of fame.'"

In brief

 * In The Daily Telegraph, University Challenge winner Ted Loveday credits Wikipedia (April 15) with his success.
 * Alabama Media Group columnist John Archibald suggests (April 12) that UA alum Jimmy Wales serve on the Board of Trustees of the University of Alabama.
 * At swissinfo.ch, on the occasion of the Historical Dictionary of Switzerland reaching the final letter of the alphabet, Professor François Valloton of the University of Lausanne ponders the future (April 11) of such reference works in the age of Wikipedia.
 * At University Affairs, Professor Christian Vandendorpe, honorary Wikipedian in residence at the University of Victoria, calls Wikipedia "A gift to the world" (April 8) and writes that "Scholars need to embrace it and do all they can to support it."

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