| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2006 |
| Founder(s) | Gregory Kohs |
| Headquarters | West Chester, Pennsylvania, US |
| Key people | Gregory Kohs (CEO) |
| Slogan | Author Your Legacy |
| Website | www.mywikibiz.com |
| Type of site | Wiki |
| Advertising | Google AdSense |
| Registration | optional (required to edit pages) |
| Available in | Multilingual |
| Launched | 2006 |
| Current status | Active |
MyWikiBiz is a wiki directory that allows people and enterprises to write about themselves. The brand began as a service creating Wikipedia articles for paying corporations; the founder and owner of MyWikiBiz, Gregory Kohs, was soon blocked from Wikipedia.[1] As of August 2011[ref], the MyWikiBiz directory contained over 70,000 pages of content about corporations and individuals. The business is headquartered in West Chester, Pennsylvania.[2]
Professor Jonathan Zittrain of the Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society discussed the case of MyWikiBiz in his book The Future of the Internet – And How to Stop It.[3] Kohs appeared on Attack of the Show! on January 25, 2007, and discussed MyWikiBiz.[4] Heise Online expressed a suspicion that while MyWikiBiz’s “attempted corporate infiltration” of Wikipedia was discovered, MyWikiBiz was not an isolated case.[5]
Kohs and his sister started the MyWikiBiz venture in Pennsylvania in July 2006, initially as a paid editing service, writing content for inclusion in Wikipedia and other community-edited sites.[6][7] The idea came from Wikipedia's "Reward Board", where interested parties would offer cash rewards or gifts to create or improve Wikipedia articles.[2] MyWikiBiz's prices ranged between $49 and $99 for adding entries that conformed to Wikipedia's standards and policies.[2] No official Wikipedia policy prohibited paid-for contributions at the time.[8] Kohs argued that there were tens of thousands of clearly notable companies and nonprofit organizations unrepresented on Wikipedia.[9]
Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales called the commercialized editing "antithetical" to Wikipedia’s mission and "absolutely unacceptable"[2] and blocked Kohs' account from editing Wikipedia.[3] However, in August 2006, Wales issued a "mutually beneficial" compromise[10] where he encouraged MyWikiBiz to author and post content on a GFDL-compliant section of MyWikiBiz.com, which could then be scraped by non-paid, independent editors into Wikipedia and other GFDL sites.[3]
In October 2006 Wales again blocked Kohs from Wikipedia, and cautioned any business from using its services. In late October 2006, Kohs formed a partnership to promote and market a wiki-based directory at Centiare.com,[2][11] but when the site's owner discontinued the site, Kohs negotiated a transfer of its contents to MyWikiBiz.com.
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