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<span style="font-size: 20px; font-weight: bold;
color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial;
line-height: 110%;">OPLIN 4cast #358: Wikipedia
troubles</span><br>
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<span style="font-size: 11px; font-weight: normal;
color: rgb(102, 102, 102); font-style: italic;
font-family: arial;">October 30th, 2013</span></p>
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<p style="text-align: justify;font-size: 16px;
font-family: arial; line-height: 110%;"><img
alt="Wikipedia logo"
src="cid:part4.05030705.00090201@oplin.org"
align="left" height="92" width="100">Wikipedia
has problems. Now twelve years old, the online
encyclopedia has developed some ailments that can
be traced directly back to the volunteer editors
of the site. Wikipedia entries depend on these
volunteers, but they sometimes behave badly or
discourage newcomers, and are hard to control.
Some editors have been caught taking payments for
writing entries that promote companies or products
under multiple false user names ("sockpuppetry").
Everyone seems to agree that Wikipedia is
troubled; but does it just need a thorough
housecleaning, or is this the beginning of the
end?
</p>
<div> </div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li style="text-align: justify; font-size: 16px;
font-family: arial; line-height: 110%;"><a
href="http://www.dailydot.com/lifestyle/wikipedia-sockpuppet-investigation-largest-network-history-wiki-pr/">The
battle to destroy Wikipedia's biggest
sockpuppet army</a> (The Daily Dot/Simon
Owens) "There are a number of reasons why a user
might create fake accounts, but given the
promotional nature of the edits and their
subjects-mostly small companies, many of which
were based in Silicon Valley-it seemed obvious
to all that the Morning277 network was made up
of paid editors who had been hired by these
companies to create pages for them. Wikipedia
has had a long, uneasy relationship with paid
contributors. Many purists believe that a
Wikipedia page's subject, or anyone paid by that
subject, has no business editing that page
because his objectivity is compromised."</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; font-size: 16px;
font-family: arial; line-height: 110%;"><a
href="http://www.vice.com/read/is-the-pr-industry-buying-influence-over-wikipedia">Is
the PR industry buying influence over
Wikipedia?</a> (The Vice/Martin Robbins)
"Triggered by the unusual behavior of an editor
named 'Morning277,' the year-long investigation
has identified a network of over 300 accounts so
far, responsible for thousands of edits dating
back as far as 2008. 'They most likely really
have maintained or written in the area of 12,000
articles, and many of their clients are quite
notable,' claimed one investigator I spoke to."</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; font-size: 16px;
font-family: arial; line-height: 110%;"><a
href="http://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/10/21/sue-gardner-response-paid-advocacy-editing/">Wikimedia
Foundation Executive Director Sue Gardner's
response to paid advocacy editing and
sockpuppetry</a> (Wikimedia Foundation/Sue
Gardner) "Our readers know Wikipedia's not
perfect, but they also know that it has their
best interests at heart, and is never trying to
sell them a product or propagandize them in any
way. Our goal is to provide neutral, reliable
information for our readers, and anything that
threatens that is a serious problem. We are
actively examining this situation and exploring
our options."</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; font-size: 16px;
font-family: arial; line-height: 110%;"><a
href="http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/520446/the-decline-of-wikipedia/">The
decline of Wikipedia</a> (MIT Technology
Review/Tom Simonite) "Unsurprisingly, the data
also indicate that well-intentioned newcomers
are far less likely to still be editing
Wikipedia two months after their first try. In
their paper on those findings, the researchers
suggest updating Wikipedia's motto, 'The
encyclopedia that anyone can edit.' Their
version reads: 'The encyclopedia that anyone who
understands the norms, socializes him or
herself, dodges the impersonal wall of
semi-automated rejection and still wants to
voluntarily contribute his or her time and
energy can edit.' Because Wikipedia has failed
to replenish its supply of editors, its skew
toward technical, Western, and male-dominated
subject matter has persisted."</li>
</ul>
<div style="text-align: left;"> </div>
<p style="text-align: left; font-size: 20px;
font-family: arial; line-height: 110%;"><small><strong><em>Data
fact:</em></strong></small><br>
</p>
<div style="text-align: justify; font-size: 16px;
font-family: arial; line-height: 110%;">The
mention of data in the last quote above refers to
an interesting research paper by Aaron Halfaker <em>et
al.</em>: <a
href="http://www-users.cs.umn.edu/%7Ehalfak/publications/The_Rise_and_Decline/">The
rise and decline of an open collaboration
community: How Wikipedia's reaction to sudden
popularity is causing its decline</a>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;"> </div>
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