Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2015-09-16/In the media




 * COI editing: The Washington Post reports that some edits made to the article for Melissa Chiu, director of the Hirshhorn Museum, were by her husband, art critic Ben Genocchio.  The Post reports that, an experienced editor and employee of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, has been discussing with staffers of the Smithsonian and Hirshhorn about editing in a manner compliant with WP:NPOV and WP:COI. (Sept. 18) G
 * This again: Someone at Vox found the page Lamest edit wars and wrote an article about it. They wonder "The big question is why Wikipedians get involved in absurd arguments that persist for years." The answer is that when "anyone can edit", then anyone can be an obsessive.  (Sept. 17) G
 * Whitehall never sleeps: Gizmodo reports on the latest amusing Wikipedia edit from a Whitehall civil servant revealed on Twitter, an early morning edit soliciting new members for a Clash of Clans team. (Sept. 17) G
 * Global North edits the world: The Guardian reports on research by Oxford University showing that a few rich Western countries edit most articles about places – and when others do contribute, they write about the west. Nearly half (45%) of all edits to articles with specific geographical coordinates were made from the UK, US, France, Germany, and Italy. Further, of the smaller number of edits that do come out of poorer countries, many are about Europe and North America. The researchers, from the university's Internet Institute, describe this as an example of how richer countries still "largely define the world view of" less affluent parts of the world. (Sept. 15) N
 * Financial edit wars: The online magazine Observer covers allegations that anonymous users (IPs) have for many years been whitewashing Wikipedia articles about Dennis Levine, Michael Milken, Ivan Boesky and others accused of financial malpractice. There have been long-running edit wars, with named accounts ("Wiki sheriffs") repeatedly attempting to restore information removed or doctored by the IPs. To illustrate the edit warring, the Observer report features a screenshot of the edit history (which it describes as the "talk page") for the article about Levine. (Sept. 15) N
 * Wikipedia in the laboratory: Chemical & Engineering News reports on how academics in chemistry are working to get their colleagues to understand and contribute to Wikipedia. (Sept. 14) G


 * Irish whitewashing: The Irish Independent reports another whitewashing of a politician’s Wikipedia article. The removal of controversial content was made by an IP traced to Ireland’s legislature, the Oireachtas.  The article on Irish senator Jim Walsh was edited on Monday, September 14 to exclude information on Walsh’s opposition to same-sex marriage and to emphasize his support for a united Ireland.  While there’s nothing new about reports of politicians allegedly editing their own articles, this story is remarkable for being reported the day after the edits were made, and for the quality of the diffs provided. (Sept. 14) S
 * Pseudoscience wormhole: If you don’t have time to randomly click links and climb down the wormholes connected to an interesting article, The A.V. Club will do it for you. In the 104th installment of a planned 4,962,925-week series, they look at pseudoscience on Wikipedia, with stops including alchemy, ear candling, spirit photography, the face on Mars, Lysenkoism, ending at the Woozle effect. (Sept. 14)  S
 * Village editing: HuffPost India reports on how schoolgirls are editing the Wikipedia article for Hutup, their small village in the Indian state of Jharkhand. Illiteracy, child marriage and human trafficking are rampant among girls in Jharkhand, and the Wikipedia editing is part of an effort by Yuwa, a non-governmental organization, to combat those ills through "football and education".  A Yuwa spokesperson said "it is important for these girls to use technology to expand their worldview beyond their own village".  An inspirational effort to bring technology to the Global South, but one wonders what will happen when Global North editors discover the girls' first-person accounts of village football conflict with Wikipedia policies. (Sept. 11) G

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