Wikimania 2012 | GroundReport

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height:90px; margin-left:0px;"> <div id="div-gpt-ad-1352391671244-0" style="width:728px; height:90px;"> <script type="text/javascript"> googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1352391671244-0'); }); </script> </div>  </div> <div id="article_display"> <h2></h2> <div id="article_body">   <h3>Wikimania 2012 </h3> <div id="link">by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130606070939/http://www.groundreport.com/JosephBishop"> <img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20130606070939im_/http://groundreport.com/includes/modules/phpthumb/phpThumb.php?src=01314734534_USER_IMAGE_JWBjpg.jpg&w=25&h=25&zc=1" style="border:none !important"> Joseph Bishop</a>    <span id="article_date"> July 18, 2012 </span></div> <br clear="all"/> <br clear="all"/> <p>Last week, Wikipedia, the popular, free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, held its 8<sup>th</sup> annual celebration in Washington, DC.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">  </span>The event was hosted by George Washington University and attracted about 1400 participants from 87 countries, over twice the number at any of their past events.</p><br> <p>Surprisingly this was only the second time the event has been held in the US.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">  </span>Past years have included Buenos Aires, Gdansk, Taipei, and Alexandria Egypt.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">  </span>Next year will be in Hong Kong.</p><br> <p>I was struck by the international makeup of the participants. By my estimate, more than half did not speak American English as their first language.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">  </span>The American super geeks, who only a few years ago were on a mission to change the world, were of course there but their role has changed.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">  </span>The free online encyclopedia is now focusing on other languages and cultures.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></p><br> <p>The most curious contingent to me was a team of suits from the State Department who differed markedly from almost everyone else there. A number of them gave presentations about the Wiki-like software their departments were using, but, more likely, their real motive was to encourage and exploit the enormous international good will created by the project.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">  </span>Probably no innovation in our lifetime has done so much to improve education and it hasn’t cost the tax-payers a cent.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">  </span>That is an impressive accomplishment.</p><br> <p>Wikipedia is actually a group of organizations all with the general theme of providing open source information that can be used by anyone.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">  </span>At the top of the food-chain is the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation, based in San Francisco, which operates on an annual budget of about $34 million in donations. The Wikipedia that most of us know is actually the English language Wikipedia.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">  </span>There are said to be editions in 285 of the world’s roughly 3000 languages.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">  </span>The English edition leads all others with a total of four million articles.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">  </span>All the major languages are represented although government censorship, particularly in China, represents a force to be reckoned with.</p><br> <p>Most participants are volunteers but they do have a paid staff, many of whom were there.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">  </span>Don’t worry about Jimmy Wales either; he gets upwards of $40,000 for his speaking engagements which are in high demand.<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p></p><br> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">About Wikipedia<o:p></o:p></b></p><br> <p class="MsoNormal">Anyone can edit Wikipedia. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>So how can this work?<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">  </span>Can’t anyone come in and destroy an article?<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">  </span>Many people have asked this question, but work it does and the results have been stunning. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Probably the best answer is that Wikipedia has put in place a number of experienced users, called administrators, who will quickly undue changes by those who have bad intent or don’t know what they’re doing.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">  </span>Technically, they have sophisticated tools in place to block anyone they deem as a threat.</p><br> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p>All Wikipedia content must be verifiable, notable and written from a neutral point of view.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">  </span>Editors cannot argue that something is true; they can only repeat what a reliable source has said.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">  </span>Their rules are arcane and their enforcement strict.</p><br> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p>The first three days of the conference featured presentations by about 100 conference participants.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">  </span>The more important speakers, such as co-founder Jimmy Wales, spoke in GWU’s impressive Lisner auditorium which could seat about 1600.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">  </span>Most of the other presentations took place in large classrooms that were often 100% full.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">  </span><o:p></o:p></p><br> <p class="MsoNormal">The question and answer sessions were, let’s just say, unique.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">  </span>No one was ever actually asked a question; they were told questions. Most spoke in “wiki-babble” which is marked by constant hand motion and frequent digression into unrelated topics. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The joining of everyday words with “wiki” is part of their culture. There are wiki-expeditions, wiki-vans, wiki-events, and wiki-you name it.<o:p></o:p></p><br> <p class="MsoNormal">No one paid full attention to the presentations either.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">  </span>Virtually everyone split their time between the speaker and their chosen handheld device; iPads, iPhone and laptops were most common.<o:p></o:p></p><br> <p class="MsoNormal">At this point in history, Wikipedia is at the top of its game.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">  </span>In only a decade they have forever changed the way that people obtain knowledge. But their ever evolving community is vulnerable; they mean well but are unsophisticated in governance and democracy.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">   </span>Already there are signs of trouble ahead.<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p></p><br> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">The Amanda Knox Article: Wikipedia’s Canary in the Mine<o:p></o:p></b></p><br> <p class="MsoNormal">I was drawn to Wikipedia by my interest in the case of Amanda Knox, an American college student who had been convicted of murdering her British roommate, Meredith Kercher, in Italy.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">  </span>Ms. Knox was found innocent last year and released after nearly four years in prison.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">  </span>The case was a media sensation in Europe with virtually all reliable sources raising questions about the case against her and her then Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">  </span>Some of the most important observers openly declared her case to be a modern day Salem Witch Trial. <o:p></o:p>But early on the British tabloids had latched on to the case and formidable sentiment against Ms. Knox developed in both Italy and Great Britain.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">  </span>The online blog war was the nastiest I have ever seen. The sentiment of the editors and administrators who controlled the Wikipedia page can be summed up by this quote (read hate speech) from an editor with 344 edits on the Meredith Kercher topic:<o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p></p><br> <p class="MsoQuote" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:1.0in;margin-bottom:0in; margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">“<em>It’s telling that you should call it witch-hunting because Knox is indeed an evil witch.</em>”<span style="font-style: normal;mso-bidi-font-style:italic"> – Wikipedia Editor Brmull.<o:p></o:p></span></p><br> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:1.0in;margin-bottom:0in; margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><o:p> </o:p></p><br> <p class="MsoNormal">For nearly two years, the Wikipedia article about the case printed outright lies about bloody footprints and a Knox PR campaign, but the real problem was what it did not include.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">  </span>Fierce criticism of the trial and police investigation became part of the story and the reigning administrators who controlled the article would have none of it.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">  </span>They were convinced of Amanda Knox’s guilt and they made sure the Wikipedia article said just that.<o:p></o:p></p><br> <p class="MsoNormal">During 2010 and 2011 any editor who challenged the neutrality of the article was destined to be banned.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">  </span>Things improved with an online petition that I authored about a year ago that asked Jimmy Wales to take a look. His statements stunned the community:<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">  </span><o:p></o:p></p><br> <p class="MsoQuote" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:1.0in;margin-bottom:0in; margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">“<em>Is it true that people have been banned for completely neutral edits? Yes. Is it true that reliable sources have been systematically excluded? Yes</em>.”<span style="font-style:normal;mso-bidi-font-style: italic"> – Jimmy Wales.</span></p><br> <p class="MsoQuote" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:1.0in;margin-bottom:0in; margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-style:normal;mso-bidi-font-style: italic"><o:p></o:p></span></p><br> <p class="MsoQuote" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:1.0in;margin-bottom:0in; margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">“<em>Censoring the views of prominent journalists and newspapers because it doesn’t fit an agenda is the precise opposite of NPOV</em>”<span style="font-style:normal;mso-bidi-font-style:italic"> – Jimmy Wales.<o:p></o:p></span></p><br> <p class="MsoNormal">I’d say the Murder of Meredith Kercher article was one in a million but the truth is I can’t find three others that are as bad. Remember there are four million articles so it’s no surprise that some will fail.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">  </span>I believe the Murder of Meredith Kercher entry to be the single most troubled article in Wikipedia’s history.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">  </span>When confronted with undisputed facts about the case, Wikipedians pretend there isn’t a problem.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">  </span>It’s kind of like the image of the ostrich that puts its head in the ground and leaves its gigantic rear end in the sky.</p><br> <p class="MsoNormal">One of the allegations that the pro-guilt forces would use to eliminate their competition was the claim of vote stacking or canvasing.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">  </span>Since they couldn’t win any votes themselves, they put forward the claim that only people likely to vote one way were being invited to the voting booth.</p><br> <p class="MsoNormal">A recent article in the online of edition of Slate Magazine talked about Wikimedia Foundation member Sarah Stierch. Sarah is a dedicated Wikipedian who has worked hard to increase the number of female editors on the project.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">  </span>Female participation stands now at only 9% in the English Wikipedia and is below 6% on some others.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></p><br> <p class="MsoNormal">The Slate article talked about how she had recently held an ‘edit-a-thon” where new women editors put together articles about under-recognized female historical figures.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">  </span>When one of these articles ran into trouble they say she “rallied the troops.”<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">  </span>The problem is that there is no difference between what the Slate article says Sarah Stierch did and the alleged behavior that got the editors blocked on the Murder of Meredith Kercher article.</p><br> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p>On the Amanda Knox topic, aggressive administrators with an agenda blocked anyone and everyone with a point of view they disagreed with.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">  </span>It was an almost complete breakdown of Wikipedia’s system.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">  </span>The result was an article that terribly harmed two innocent human beings.</p><br> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p>But it was only one article out of four million. Wikipedia’s contribution to the world has been profound.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">  </span>I hope that they make necessary changes to their governance structure so that they can continue to make the world a better place.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">  </span>And I hope they take a hard look at what happened in the Amanda Knox article.<o:p></o:p></p><br>  <br clear="all"/> <br clear="all"/> <span>Tags: </span> <span> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130606070939/http://www.groundreport.com/article_list.php?tag=Wikipedia">Wikipedia</a> , <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130606070939/http://www.groundreport.com/article_list.php?tag=Wikimania">Wikimania</a> , <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130606070939/http://www.groundreport.com/article_list.php?tag=Wikimedia">Wikimedia</a> , <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130606070939/http://www.groundreport.com/article_list.php?tag=Amanda+Knox">Amanda Knox</a> , <a 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