Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2006-09-18/In the news

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Wikipedia in the news

By Trödel, September 18, 2006

Wales interviewed by WSJ

Will Wikipedia Mean the End Of Traditional Encyclopedias? Jimmy Wales and Dale Hoiberg, Encyclopædia Britannica editor in Chief, were interviewed through email by the Wall Street Journal. Wales and Hoiberg discussed issues of editorial control, the differing approaches to content gathering, the balance between quality and open editing, and Wikipedia policies. Hoiberg took offense that Wales included links [1][2] refering to articles where Britannica received bad publicity; however, Wales responded that links are one of the powerful advantages of being online and that Wikipedia had a "fine article on the [criticism of Wikipedia]". The accompanying WSJ online poll showed strong support for the open editing approach.

Wikipedia articles average 11th in search results

Steve Rubel found that the Wikipedia article for the top 100 advertisers (by marketing dollars spent) was result 11 on Google. Rubel posted a blog entry, Study: Wikipedia Dominates Brand Search Results, that supplemented and quoted an article he wrote in last week's issue of Advertising Age. Rubel opined that 11 was "just shy of the magic number 10 required to make Google's first page of results." He discussed the impact that a Wikipedia article can have on shaping brand identity. Rubel also discussed Wikipedia's neutrality policy and suggested that Wikipedia provide space in the article "where brand managers ... can respond in an official capacity."

Wikipedians appear on Nightline

Jimmy Wales appeared on the ABC News program Nightline to discuss Wikipedia: Getting to Truth by 'Community'. Wales responded to Comedy Central's "Colbert Report" where Stephen Colbert asked fans to falsely report data about elephants saying, "Stop it Colbert. You know in terms of vandalism people were in a panic for a few minutes, [but] it was a pretty minor spate of vandalism." Kat Walsh and Mark Pellegrini were also among those interviewed.

Wikipedia standing in academia

The Indiana Daily Student carried three articles on Wikipedia. In Wikipedia to take on academia, the Daily Student revealed that 44% of faculty allow Wikipedia to be cited as a source, but 35% do not. A followup article, Some professors doubt credibility of site, discussed faculty objections to citing Wikipedia and using poor sources in general. See also Students debate Wiki. At the University of Alberta, Students warned to be wary of Wikipedia.

Continued coverage of China's block of wikipedia.org

Other articles


Also this week: — Citizendium — Simple English Wikipedia — News and notes — Press coverage — Features and admins — Technology — Arbitration

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