Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2021-03-28/In the media

Enterprise API
Wikipedia Is Finally Asking Big Tech to Pay Up by Noam Cohen in Wired broke the biggest story of the month about Wikimedia Foundation's for-profit subsidiary Wikimedia, LLC and its intended product, Wikimedia Enterprise, more commonly known as Enterprise API. While there are now over 100 news stories on the topic, Cohen is almost the only journalist who directly quotes WMF staffers.

Google and Wikipedia, according to Cohen, have long had an unspoken partnership. Google provides Wikipedia with readers, Wikipedia provides Google with content. The idealists on Wikipedia, according to Cohen, have been providing the content for free to the "rapacious capitalists" at Google and other Big Tech firms. Now the WMF is trying to charge Big Tech for faster access to the content. This more business-like relationship should result in more money to the WMF, and better service to Big Tech. Other users of the data dump of all articles, which can be downloaded every two weeks, and of the recent changes "fire hose", will still be able to use those formats for free. Those companies who need faster access, better service, or customized data feeds will pay for the privilege.

Big Tech's money should stabilize the WMF's cash inflows and allow it to pay for expected expansion in the global south. But there's a problem in getting too much money from Big Tech – the WMF could become dependent on that cash. Wikipedians will be exposed to commercial influences from our new business partners and will need to trust that they don't take advantage of us. Cohen concludes "One can only hope that [the community] finds partners worthy of such faith."

Disinformation on Japanese Wikipedia
Non-English Editions of Wikipedia Have a Misinformation Problem by Yumiko Sato in Slate The Japanese Wikipedia gets the second most page views after the English Wikipedia, but its coverage of some topics, especially those related to World War II, is lacking according to Sato. The systemic problems are exemplified by the coverage of well-documented human experimentation by Unit 731 during the 1930s and 1940s, which are described as "a theory". The Nanking massacre is described as the Nanking incident. That article contains few period photographs, with none of horrific ones that are displayed on the English Wikipedia.

The Japanese article on comfort women – women held in sexual slavery by the Japanese army – uses the Japanese word for "prostitution". Sato states the "article is not designed to inform the readers but to confuse them and cast a seed of doubt in their minds." She proposes several causes for the systemic problem, including Japanese cultural and linguistic isolation, but stresses the relatively few Japanese administrators, and the strong control they exercise. An earlier and longer version of the article is available at yumiux.com and a video of Sato presenting Disinformation on Japanese Wikipedia (13:50) is available on Vimeo.

Videos and podcasts

 * Wikimedia CEO Katherine Maher on disinformation, Wikipedians and Wiki policies (video 58:45): Maher takes a dive into disinformation issues and explains how Wikipedia works to the Canadian Centre for Journalism.
 * The Future of Wikipedia, Breaking Your Filter Bubble, Werewolves, Alabama, and Why it is Important to be Nice to People, with Jimmy Wales (podcast) in Irish Tech News: Jimmy lets folks know that almost everything is different between London and Alabama. He also gives a concise and informative overview of the issues involved in the Enterprise API proposal.
 * Making sure Wikipedia shows that Women Do News (podcast 25:11). It's All Journalism interviews Angilee Shah and Jareen Imam about the project Women do news which helps write and edit articles on women journalists.
 * Wikipedia turns 20 (podcast) on Australian ABC featuring Heather Ford.
 * Episode 10: Veni Vidi Vicipéid: Building an Irish Wikipedia' in The World According to Wikipedia

In brief

 * The Tensions Behind Wikipedia’s New Code of Conduct by Stephen Harrison in Slate concentrates on the problem of harassment. He interviews ArbCom member and Meg Wacha, President of Wikimedia New York City. See Arbitration report for a new development related to this story.
 * Fact Check-CPAC Wikipedia page was temporarily edited; not evidence of bias by Google in Reuters. Vandals inserted material into Wikipedia saying that CPAC is "attended by conservatives, QAnon symphesizers (sic), Neo Nazis, KKK members, rapists, insurrectionalists (sic), Trumpists and fraudulent elected officials." The material was quickly removed, but not before somebody took a screen shot of a Google search result and posted it online. There's no indication in Reuters on who vandalized Wikipedia or why, but they conclude "These posts are not evidence that Google or Wikipedia workers described CPAC using these words." See a related article in this issue Google isn't responsible for Wikipedia's mistakes.


 * From English to Arabic: Are Wikipedia’s Egalitarian Values Getting Lost in Translation?: Egyptian Streets reports on WikiGap.
 * If you want impact, why aren’t you writing for Wikipedia?: by Piotr Konieczny in THE, encourages academics to edit Wikipedia and their employers to give career-enhancing recognition for it.
 * Bad education: A mathematician, astrophysicist, publisher, and Wikipedia director respond to Russia’s draft law on ‘educational activity’ that could force new regulations on popular science and more Meduza, our favorite Latvian website that publishes in both Russian and English, reports that the Russian State Duma has passed a bill placing as-yet-undefined restrictions on educational websites. The bill still needs to be passed by the Senate and signed by President Putin before it becomes law, Stanislav Kozlovsky, executive director of Wikimedia-Russia, says he expects the law to fail.
 * Microsoft Edge gets a special Wikipedia reader mode in Windows Central.

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