[OPLIN 4cast] OPLIN 4cast #455: Wikipedia's money problems

[OPLIN Support]

 Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser.
<http://www.oplin.org/4cast/> [image: OPLIN 4Cast]

OPLIN 4cast #455: Wikipedia's money problems
September 16th, 2015

[image: money bribes]Last month, *The Atlantic* 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....

   - The covert world of people trying to edit Wikipedia-for pay
   <http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/08/wikipedia-editors-for-pay/393926/>
   (The Atlantic | Joe Pinsker) "Two months ago, an investigation revealed
   <http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/23/business/media/a-pr-firm-alters-the-wiki-reality-of-its-star-clients.html>
   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
   boasted
   <http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/23/business/media/a-pr-firm-alters-the-wiki-reality-of-its-star-clients.html>,
   '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.'"
   - Wikipedia bans hundreds of "black hat" paid editors who created
   promotional pages on its site
   <http://techcrunch.com/2015/09/01/wikipedia-bans-hundreds-of-black-hat-paid-editors-who-created-promotional-pages-its-site/>
   (TechCrunch | Sarah Perez) "As you may recall, back in October 2013, the
   organization's volunteers blocked hundreds of accounts associated with
   the consulting firm Wiki-PR
   <http://www.businessinsider.com/wiki-pr-ceo-says-wikipedia-ban-was-unfair-2014-1>.
   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 said
   <https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/11/19/wikimedia-foundation-sends-cease-and-desist-letter-to-wikipr/>
   then that it banned 300 accounts associated with the firm (which argued
   <http://www.businessinsider.com/wiki-pr-ceo-says-wikipedia-ban-was-unfair-2014-1>
   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."
   - Wikipedia:Long-term abuse/Orangemoody
   <https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Administrators%27_noticeboard&oldid=678838796#Wikipedia:Long-term_abuse.2FOrangemoody>
   (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."
   - "WikiGate" raises questions about Wikipedia's commitment to open access
   <http://arstechnica.com/science/2015/09/wikigate-raises-questions-about-wikipedias-commitment-to-open-access/>
   (Ars Technica | Glyn Moody) "[Michael] Eisen's fear is that the free
   accounts to ScienceDirect
   <http://www.elsevier.com/connect/elsevier-access-donations-help-wikipedia-editors-improve-science-articles>
   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
   tweet <https://twitter.com/mbeisen/status/642334562039664640>:
   '@Wikipedia is providing free advertising for Elsevier and getting nothing
   in return,' and <https://twitter.com/mbeisen/status/642339785323909120>
   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.'"

*Articles from Ohio Web Library <http://ohioweblibrary.org>:*

   - Truth, lies and the world of Wikipedia.
   <http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy.oplin.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=pwh&AN=7EH98593202&site=pov-live>
   (*The Times* (United Kingdom), 4/23/2015 | Richard Godwin)
   - The decline of Wikipedia.
   <http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy.oplin.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=cph&AN=91582267&site=ehost-live>
   (*MIT Technology Review*, 11/01/2013, p.50-56 | Tom Simonite)
   - Online deception in social media.
   <http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy.oplin.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&AN=97638781&site=ehost-live>
   (*Communications of the ACM*, Sept. 2014, p.72-80 | Michail Tsikerdekis
   and Sherali Zeadally)

------------------------------
The *OPLIN 4cast* 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:

   - *RSS feed.* You can receive the OPLIN 4cast via RSS feed by
   subscribing to the following URL:
   http://www.oplin.org/4cast/index.php/?feed=rss2.
   - *Live Bookmark.* If you're using the Firefox web browser, you can go
   to the 4cast website (http://www.oplin.org/4cast/) 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.
   - *E-mail.* You can have the OPLIN 4cast delivered via e-mail (a'la
   OPLINlist and OPLINtech) by subscribing to the 4cast mailing list at
   http://mail.oplin.org/mailman/listinfo/OPLIN4cast.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.oplin.org/pipermail/oplin4cast/attachments/20150916/4ab61263/attachment.html>