<div dir="ltr"><div><div><div dir="ltr">
<table bgcolor="#ffffff" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td align="left" valign="top">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="border-top:0px solid rgb(0,0,0);border-bottom:1px solid rgb(255,255,255);background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-align:center" align="center"><span style="font-size:10px;color:rgb(96,96,96);line-height:200%;font-family:verdana;text-decoration:none">Email
not displaying correctly? <a href="http://www.oplin.org/4cast/" style="font-size:10px;color:rgb(0,0,255);line-height:200%;font-family:verdana;text-decoration:none" target="_blank">View
it in your browser.</a></span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top:0px solid rgb(51,51,51);border-bottom:0px solid rgb(255,255,255);background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">
<center><a><img src="http://www.oplin.org/4cast/wp-content/themes/4cast/images/kubrickheader.jpg" title="OPLIN" alt="OPLIN 4Cast" align="middle" border="0"></a></center>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table style="width:763px;height:877px" bgcolor="#ffffff" cellpadding="20" cellspacing="0">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="font-size:12px;color:rgb(0,0,0);line-height:150%;font-family:trebuchet ms" background="http://www.oplin.org/4cast/wp-content/themes/4cast/images/kubrickbgwide.jpg" bgcolor="#ffffff" valign="top">
<p>
<span style="font-size:20px;font-weight:bold;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:arial;line-height:110%">OPLIN 4cast #455: Wikipedia's money problems</span><br>
<span style="font-size:11px;font-weight:normal;color:rgb(102,102,102);font-style:italic;font-family:arial">September 16th, 2015</span></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;font-size:16px;font-family:arial;line-height:110%"><img align="left" src="http://www.oplin.org/4cast/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/money.png" alt="money bribes" width="130" height="100">Last month, <em>The Atlantic</em> published an extensive article (linked below) about problems Wikipedia was having with supposedly volunteer editors posting things on Wikipedia for financial gain, a violation of the Wikipedia Terms of Use, which had been strengthened in June 2014. Certainly a profit motive has the potential to bias information. Sometimes it's hard, however, to decide where to draw the line; scientific publishers donate accounts to Wikipedia editors to allow them to conduct research with the apparent expectation that links to their pay-walled articles will show up in Wikipedia references. If only there was some place to get free, reliable information....
</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.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/08/wikipedia-editors-for-pay/393926/" target="_blank">The covert world of people trying to edit Wikipedia-for pay</a> (The Atlantic | Joe Pinsker) "Two months ago, an investigation <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/23/business/media/a-pr-firm-alters-the-wiki-reality-of-its-star-clients.html" target="_blank">revealed</a> that even after the rule change, employees of Sunshine Sachs, a public-relations firm, had still been editing the Wikipedia pages of their clients without disclosing their affiliation. One email sent by the company <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/23/business/media/a-pr-firm-alters-the-wiki-reality-of-its-star-clients.html" target="_blank">boasted</a>, 'Sunshine Sachs has a number of experienced editors on staff that have established profiles on Wikipedia. The changes we make to existing pages are rarely challenged.'"</li>
<li style="text-align:justify;font-size:16px;font-family:arial;line-height:110%"><a href="http://techcrunch.com/2015/09/01/wikipedia-bans-hundreds-of-black-hat-paid-editors-who-created-promotional-pages-its-site/" target="_blank">Wikipedia bans hundreds of "black hat" paid editors who created promotional pages on its site</a> (TechCrunch | Sarah Perez) "As you may recall, back in October 2013, the organization's volunteers blocked hundreds of accounts <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/wiki-pr-ceo-says-wikipedia-ban-was-unfair-2014-1" target="_blank">associated with the consulting firm Wiki-PR</a>. The organization at the time sent a cease-and-desist letter to the firm, which promoted its ability to help article subjects claim their 'top spot in Google search results.' Wikipedia <a href="https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/11/19/wikimedia-foundation-sends-cease-and-desist-letter-to-wikipr/" target="_blank">said</a> then that it banned 300 accounts associated with the firm (which <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/wiki-pr-ceo-says-wikipedia-ban-was-unfair-2014-1" target="_blank">argued</a> it only had 45 people working for them.) That means that today's news of the banning of 381 accounts is actually larger than that earlier scandal in terms of the number of 'black hat' editors being exposed and banned."</li>
<li style="text-align:justify;font-size:16px;font-family:arial;line-height:110%"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Administrators%27_noticeboard&oldid=678838796#Wikipedia:Long-term_abuse.2FOrangemoody" target="_blank">Wikipedia:Long-term abuse/Orangemoody</a> (Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard) "It is important to note that the 381 accounts identified in this investigation are only those that were editing from the end of April to early August. This reflects the time-limited availability of checkuser data. Many of the identified accounts were editing before that time, and the nature and quality of the edits suggests that this paid editing scheme had been in place for some time before it was fortuitously identified."</li>
<li style="text-align:justify;font-size:16px;font-family:arial;line-height:110%"><a href="http://arstechnica.com/science/2015/09/wikigate-raises-questions-about-wikipedias-commitment-to-open-access/" target="_blank">"WikiGate" raises questions about Wikipedia's commitment to open access</a> (Ars Technica | Glyn Moody) "[Michael] Eisen's fear is that the <a href="http://www.elsevier.com/connect/elsevier-access-donations-help-wikipedia-editors-improve-science-articles" target="_blank">free accounts to ScienceDirect</a> will encourage Wikipedia editors to add references to articles that are behind Elsevier's paywall. When members of the public seek to follow such links, they will be unable to see the article in question unless they have a suitable subscription to Elsevier's journals, or they make a one-time payment, usually tens of pounds for limited access. Eisen went on to <a href="https://twitter.com/mbeisen/status/642334562039664640" target="_blank">tweet</a>: '@Wikipedia is providing free advertising for Elsevier and getting nothing in return,' <a href="https://twitter.com/mbeisen/status/642339785323909120" target="_blank">and</a> that, rather than making it easy to access materials behind paywalls, 'it SHOULD be difficult for @wikipedia editors to use #paywalled sources as, in long run, it will encourage openness.'"</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>Articles from <a href="http://ohioweblibrary.org" target="_blank">Ohio Web Library</a>:</em></strong></small><br>
</p>
<div style="text-align:justify;font-size:16px;font-family:arial;line-height:110%">
<ul>
<li><a href="http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy.oplin.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=pwh&AN=7EH98593202&site=pov-live" target="_blank">Truth, lies and the world of Wikipedia.</a> (<em>The Times</em> (United Kingdom), 4/23/2015 | Richard Godwin)</li>
<li><a href="http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy.oplin.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=cph&AN=91582267&site=ehost-live" target="_blank">The decline of Wikipedia.</a> (<em>MIT Technology Review</em>, 11/01/2013, p.50-56 | Tom Simonite)</li>
<li><a href="http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy.oplin.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&AN=97638781&site=ehost-live" target="_blank">Online deception in social media.</a> (<em>Communications of the ACM</em>, Sept. 2014, p.72-80 | Michail Tsikerdekis and Sherali Zeadally)</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div style="text-align:left"> </div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td background="http://www.oplin.org/4cast/wp-content/themes/4cast/images/kubrickbgwide.jpg" valign="top" width="760"><span style="font-size:10px;color:rgb(96,96,96);line-height:100%;font-family:verdana">
<hr>
<div style="text-align:justify">The <strong><em>OPLIN
4cast</em></strong>
is a weekly compilation of
recent headlines, topics, and trends that could impact public
libraries. You can subscribe to it in a variety of ways, such as: <br>
</div>
<div style="text-align:left"> </div>
<ul>
<li style="text-align:justify"><strong>RSS feed.</strong>
You
can receive the OPLIN 4cast
via RSS feed by subscribing to the following URL:
<a href="http://www.oplin.org/4cast/index.php/?feed=rss2" target="_blank">http://www.oplin.org/4cast/index.php/?feed=rss2</a>. </li>
<li style="text-align:justify"><strong>Live Bookmark.</strong>
If you're using the Firefox
web browser, you can go to the 4cast website
(<a href="http://www.oplin.org/4cast/" target="_blank">http://www.oplin.org/4cast/</a>) and click on the orange "radio wave" icon
on the right side of the address bar. In Internet Explorer 7, click on
the same icon to view or subscribe to the 4cast RSS feed. </li>
<li style="text-align:justify"><strong>E-mail.</strong>
You
can have the OPLIN 4cast
delivered via e-mail (a'la OPLINlist and OPLINtech) by subscribing to
the 4cast mailing list at
<a href="http://mail.oplin.org/mailman/listinfo/OPLIN4cast" target="_blank">http://mail.oplin.org/mailman/listinfo/OPLIN4cast</a>. </li>
</ul>
</span> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top:0px solid rgb(255,255,255);background-color:rgb(255,255,204)" background="http://www.oplin.org/4cast/wp-content/themes/4cast/images/kubrickfooter.jpg" valign="top" width="760"> <br>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div></div></div>
</div>