Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2005-11-21/In the news

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In the news

By Catherine, 21 November 2005

Major media discusses Wikipedia

The BBC Online discussed the Wikimedia Foundation and its goals in "Open media to connect communities" on November 20. Jo Twist says, "The goal is to tackle on one of the recurring issues that arose during the UN World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis about the lack of material online in languages other than English." It also analyzes the relevance of WikiNews, and the October blocking of Wikipedia in China (see archived story).

The New York Times also ran a prominent piece on page C4 of its print edition on November 14, "More Find Online Encyclopedia is Handy". Alex Mindlin discussed an October report from Nielsen//NetRatings on the tripling of Wikipedia's growth (see archived story), and Intelliseek's analysis of the encyclopedia's popularity among bloggers. Wikipedia "showed up in roughly one out of every 600 blog posts last month; it was one of every 3,300 posts in October 2004."

Wikipedia vandalism makes front page news

Vandalism to the English article on Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, claiming he had been in prison for pedophilia, made the front page of Norwegian tabloid-style newspaper Dagbladet on November 11 under the headline "Hengt ut som pedofil". The story was then picked up by Norway's largest newspaper Verdens Gang ("Stoltenberg uthengt i nettleksikon"), and mentioned on the air by NRK, the state broadcasting company. The graffiti was added by an anonymous user on November 9, and removed approximately 23 hours later. An anonymous apology from a different IP address was posted on the talk page for the Norwegian version of the article.

Others try their hand at the Wiki game

On November 15, technology site CNET published a long article called "How wikis are changing our view of the world" as part of their special report series "Taking Back the Web". It was written by Daniel Terdiman, who has written several previous articles on Wikipedia and other wiki matters. At the same time, they launched http://www.takebackwiki.com, a nearly empty wiki based on the MediaWiki software for their readers to take in whatever direction they chose. (The site was not working at press time.)

Similarly, the Daily Tar Heel reports in "Web site to provide link to politics, residents" that Wikipedia is the inspiration for another website. North Carolinans have launched Orangepedia (using DokuWiki software) to provide information for the communities of Orange County, North Carolina.

Mail & Guardian follow up

The South African Mail & Guardian newspaper printed "Wikipedia springs into action after M&G Online article" on November 15, in a prompt follow-up to its November 10 article "Can You Trust Wikipedia?" (see archived story). In it, Elvira van Noort says "Now, a week after the M&G Online article was published and Chambers put the experts' comments online, most of the entries have been edited and improved. Constantly changing are the entries about the ANC and the media in South Africa."

The newspaper also mentioned Wikipedia in "One foot in the future" (November 17), and cited it for a definition of killer app in "Microsoft is back in the game" (November 11).

Local analysis

On November 20, The Sunday Times in Singapore ran an article by Mak Mun San called "Wakey, Wakey, Wikipedians edit the world" (subscription required); it ran on page L8-9 of their print edition. The article describes Wikipedia and defines wiki terms such as "NPOV", "Wiki", and "Wikipediholic".

The California newspaper The Stockton Record published "Wikipedia may not be best source" on November 18, another basic article on Wikipedia. It includes quotes from high school and college students who use it as a reference, some of whom have edited the articles for Stockton, California and University of the Pacific.