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- -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Doctoring the past - Wiki style Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2006 10:36:56 +0000 From: Brian Randell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Dave: The front page of today's (UK) Guardian has an article on Wikipedia that is to my mind not only well-balanced and accurate, but also funny - this last quality not usually being found in their front page articles. cheers Brian === >Doctoring the past - Wiki style > >Patrick Barkham >Friday February 10, 2006 >The Guardian > >We are all Alastair Campbells now. Spin doctors' antennae whirred >around this week when the volunteers who run Wikipedia discovered >that staff of US senators and congressmen had been busy burnishing >their bosses' entries in the internet encyclopedia. > >Millions of people turn to the reference site to look up facts - and >change them. The non-profit making project to build an internet >encyclopedia is the 19th most-visited site in the world. Three per >cent of all webpages visited are Wikipedia pages. Its guiding, and >democratic, principle: anyone can anonymously edit it. Increasingly, >it seems, politicians and their staff are among the most dedicated >editors. > >Patrolling the 962,652 entries in the English Wiki - more than >double the number a year ago - its idealistic volunteers found other >examples of "politically motivated editing" emanating from >Washington. In one case, an intern for Democratic representative >Marty Meehan deleted a reference to his broken promise to only serve >four terms. In another, the office of Senator Norm Coleman deleted >an unflattering reference to voting with President George Bush 98% >of the time in 2003, despite running as a moderate the year before. >Wikipedia took draconian action: all computers connected to servers >at the House of Representatives were temporarily denied access to >the site. > >Computers linked to Canada's House of Commons and the German >Bundestag also fiddled with entries, according to Wikipedia. But >Jimmy Wales, the Florida-based founder who was embarrassingly >exposed for tweaking his own entry, said no suspicious activity had >yet been recorded on the computers of Westminster and Whitehall. > >Why do our slow-witted special advisers twiddle their thumbs while >websavvy idealists write their bosses' biographies? The Guardian >could help. I bring up Tony Blair's entry. It appears a perfect >example of a Wiki entry: accurate, informative, well-sourced and >neutral in tone. But every choice of fact is a subjective act. And >there's one our Tone wouldn't like: "Euan Blair received widespread >publicity after police found him 'drunk and incapable'." C'mon guys, >the kids are off limits. Snip. I cut it out. > >"While the Blairs have stated that they wish to shield their >children from the media, they have not always been able, or willing >... " Hang on, "willing"? What does that imply? Cut. Save. Refresh >page. Tony's Wiki entry is now a lot shinier. > >Time to buff up the Guardian. The stereotypical Guardian reader is, >Wikipedia explains, a lentil-munching, sandal-wearing lefty. "Like >most stereotypes, to some extent this one is both inaccurate and >outdated." Let's get rid of "to some extent", eh? > >I add some positive spin about our rising circulation. Hang on, >there is someone missing from the list of "notable regular >contributors (past and present)". Ian Aitken, Julian Borger, Emma >Brockes: excellent, excellent. But no "Patrick Barkham". I slip the >name in. It looks nice, if suspiciously anomalous. > >Ah, the sweet power of the spin doctor (tempered by the growing >anxiety that a volunteer will hunt me down and attack me with worms >or bots or turn my Mac into a zombie computer). Wikipedia records >the internet protocol address of the computer on which every edit >occurs. They could easily trace my edits to the Guardian. Its >volunteers cleverly trapped the US spinners by sending emails to >their offices. When they received replies, they found the IP >addresses contained in the emails matched those of the dodgy editors. > >Time to phone Wikipedia. Does the furore over the politicians >gilding their own lilies undermine its credibility? "It's more >damaging to the persons involved," says Mr Wales. "We were able to >catch these bad edits very quickly and good edits were incorporated >very quickly." > >The site is still smarting from bad publicity about the biography of >the US journalist John Seigenthaler, which incorrectly linked him to >the Kennedy assassinations. The libellous allegations were not >spotted for months before they were removed, leading to criticism >about its reliability. > >Mr Wales says the "whitewashing" editors from Washington are treated >"just like editors from a grammar school. If they behave themselves, >that's fine. If not, they get blocked." > >What does Wikipedia rule on people adding gloss to their own >entries? "It's not absolutely forbidden to edit an article you're >involved in but it's not considered good practice," says a UK >spokesman, David Gerard. > >Marty Meehan recanted. "It was a waste of energy and an error in >judgment on the part of my staff to have allowed any time to be >spent on updating my Wikipedia entry," he said. > >And so must I. Shamed by my crass attempts to subvert the democratic >goal of a free encyclopedia on the internet, I return and remove my >"bad edits" to leave the pages just as they were. Will the world's >spin doctors suffer similar pangs of conscience? http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1706597,00.html - -- School of Computing Science, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK EMAIL = [EMAIL PROTECTED] PHONE = +44 191 222 7923 FAX = +44 191 222 8232 URL = http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/~brian.randell/ -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.2 (MingW32) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFD7Ke8tcdvoAezhUsRAp51AJ0Y1CsmF4gzC5hPnvuhrCNjdzbwwQCfTj5/ MOaGTcX2OGqW7ARlVpiJZ2Y= =Ncul -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as [email protected] To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
